WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 



OK, 



RECONSTRUCTION AND ITS RESULTS. 



BY 

HILARY A. HERBERT, M. C, Alabama; ZEBULON B. VANCE, U. S. 

Senator, North Carolina; JOHN J. HEMPHILL, M.C., South Carolina; 

HENRY G. TURNER, M. C, Georgia; SAMUEL PASCO, U. S. 

Senator, Florida; IRA P. JONES, Tennessee; ROBERT 

STILES, Esq., Virginia; O. S. LONG and WILLIAM L. 

WILSON, M. C, West Virginia; GEORGE G. VEST, 

U. S. Senator, Mo.; WILLIAM M. FISHBACK, 

Arkansas; ETHELBERT BARKSDALE, 

Ex-M. C, Miss. ; CHARLES STEWART, 

M. C, Texas; B. J. SAGE, Louisiana. 



BALTIMORE: 

R. H. WOODWARD & COMPANY. 

1890. 



Obf^Hsht, 1890, 
9y BILABT A. HEKBEBT. 



B: 

TLo While lluOfie 



^e:^ication< 



TO THE 



BUSINESS MEN OF THE NORTH 



THIS BOOK 



IS RESPECTFUIvEY DEDICATED. 



Hilary A. Herbert. 



April I, 1890. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTBR I. 

RECONSTRUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 

Lincoln's death calamity to the South, 1 ; Lincoln's theory of Reconstruction, 1, 2 ; Ste- 
vens' theory — Sumner's, 2 ; Lincoln's plan in message of 18G3, 2, 3 ; Act of Congress, July, 
1864— Lincoln's pocket veto— Winter-Davis protest, 4-6 ; Congress adjourned leaving Lincoln 
to carry out his own policy — Lincoln has prepared the proclamation — Johnson subsequently 
adopts, 5, 6 ; Blaine's opinion— comments, 6, 7 ; Andrew Johnson retains Lincoln's cabinet — 
issues Lincoln's North Carolina proclamation, 8, 9 ; Civil governments rapidly restored, 9-11 ; 
Congress convenes, 11 ; Sherman shows Johnson is following Lincoln plan, 12 ; Stevens deter- 
mined to "secure perpetual ascendency to party of the Union"— Joint committee on recon- 
struction, 13, 14 ; Veto of civil rights bill— split in cabinet, 14, 15 ; Rejection of 14th Amend- 
ment—causes, 15, 16 ; The Freedmen's Bureau— its evil influences— Grant's report, 16-18 ; 
The Committee of Fifteen — its methods, 18-20 ; Eepublicans victorious in Congressional elec- 
tions, 21 ; Impeachment, 21, 22 ; Negro Suffrage for the District of Columbia, 22, 23 ; Taken 
away by Republicans themselves in 1874, 24 ; Congre'^s decided, in 1867, war was not over 
and passed reconstruction laws supplanting civil authorities by military power, 24-26 : McAr- 
dle case, 26 ; Lincoln to Shepley, 27 ; Senator Wilson's prophecy that these acts would Repub- 
licauize the South — its fulfillment, 27, 28. 



CHAPTER II. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 

Wretched condition of people in 1865, 29 ; Old political feuds still divided them, 25-30 ; 
Senator Fessenden on Freedmen's Bureau, 30; Bureau's influence over colored man, 30-31 ; 
Vagrancy laws— Blaine's comments in " Twenty Years in Congress " and New England Stat- 
utes cited in reply, 31-36 ; Reflections on self-government, 36, 37; Representatives refused 
admission to Congress— exultation of blacks, dejection of whites — Friction between races — 

V 



^.j OON'TKNTS. 

: : ..trict, hc«dqu»rU'i« ot Atlauta; Gen. Swayne of Alabama, 
, j«, 3© : G»n. CUnton organixes oppoaition or Conservative 
^gjlj Itfin^iin brfvMO U#n- CUnton and Senator Wilson— Riot in Mobile— Gen. Pope 
lla«V<o H^jot al MuUI»— Hortoua amusing decision in case of Charles Archie 
II ; lien. 8»ayD« a prw«;,ectiTe candidate for the United States Senate— Union 
U^w^ «sclwlliM( many naUva wbiica, adniittinj; blacks— iU Montgomery Council declares 
ln^ xrmol RefMilllcan party, thus forming black man's party, 41,42; Attractive 

„. , .« (k^OMO— tb« latlj, the foniis and ceremonies, 42,43 ; Gen. Pope's prophecy, 

» MfTaUf* CuoraoHoo-iUamall numbers— Colored men phinning to forcibly prevent 

., ,. . ■ f Rrpublicao culorwd " Special Committee on the Situation," 44 ; Cousii- 

1^,, ,_,. :,, Sof. 5, 1»<;T— all iu memU-rs friunds of reconstruction— its discussions 

— ihlrUva ■wialwra. al Ita date, prolcal against proi>o6ed constitution— whites despondent- 
ly^. 1,,^ < ; r-licvcd — Gon. Bleado in command, 45 ; Ek-ctiou for rati- 
%c»Uon ■-»t« oniciahf to be elected at the same time— Republican 
a-titM lf^**. 4A, 17 ; SumiMT " would nut see new states born of tlio bayonet " — Gen. 
M^mU 4srlan« o I'-d by 8,114 rotes according to law of its submission, 
a»l Ikto iWfmltil -^ ' for state olTlccrB— Remarkable report of reconstruction 
twllln that Mhar-qitrot citangr uf law could affect election already held — Congress adopts 
o '• rrjuft rvjt'cte'l and defeated nominees installed, 47-50 ; State credit 

ki. . _ j^»ut railruad legislation, oTt-r issues of bonds— frauds — increase of debt, 

ftl-^3, lUilanUe uflk^-boklenii, &3, M; election uf 1870 — Republican quarrels — Lindsay, 
fHiiiii f ■!. eUclfU UuTpmor — Smith mils on troops to rot^dn him in office, then abandons 
MHrtart — iJadaky's administration unsuccessful, 65-.')7 ; Lewis, Republican, elected Governor, 
IVTS-IhMl t^acblalura— U. S. Iruupa again called on, 57-69; The judiciary, amusing charge 
legfaailjary. S^t-€\ ; Oinpaign of 1K74 — State debt, the militar3', hand-cuflTs, overflow bacon 
— DMBumU r««W*ai the state, CI-^ ; A new constitution, reduction of salaries and expenses 
f, 4«U, Kbuula, flgtxnM, reflections, Gl-C\>. 



CHAPTKR III. 

RRCONSTRUCTION IN NORTH C.VROLINA. 

"^'' ' " ' ^Wr WM f.if re»i..mt|un ..f the Union, 70, 71 ; Theory was secession 

•^ ' * f thr Union— Thl« rrciigniwHl by all branches of the Government 

• «4 Kmj WarvU-k— caaD of James Kagan— Rcrcrdy Johnson- minority report, 71-74 ; 
' ■* and North Carnlino put under military rule, 

■ i^t*, 75. 7C; Klectl<in of delegates to Conven- 
•MkoAs aa4 r«Mili»-lbe nmX qanrtloo un the vol© for constitution, 77, 78 ; New gov- 
!•• laMK«'«*«4-«Mtpl*kioD of legislature— raid on treasury begun— echool fund- 



CONTENTS. vii 

W. & W. and W. & M Railroads robbed— Littlefield and Swepson ring— anecdote of Cuffy 
79, 80 ; Railroad bonds authorized and issued— rates of taxation— County bonds, 80 81 • 
Courts of Justice, 81, 82 ; $14,000,000 bonds issued— not a mile of railroad built, 82 ; The 
Schoffner Act— martial law — two regiments, one white, one negro— court-martial — habeas 
corpus— C.J. Pearson and Governor Holden— state ablaze with excitement — anew election 
approaches— state redeemed, 82-84. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH CAROI^INA. 

Complexion of state Convention January, 1868, 85 ; Scott elected Governor— Complexion 
of General Assembly— Moses speaker, 86; "Pike's Prostrate state," 86, 87; General election 
law, 87, 88; State-House furniture— census law, 89 ; State bank fraud— Homes for the home- 
less, 90, 91; Another election law, 91, 92; Militia laws -Campaign for Governor— 96,000 
negro militia enrolled — fraudulent arms contracts — use made of militia, 92-95 ; Scott's re- 
markable veto, 95 ; Impeachment : how prevented — Blue Ridge and G. & C. Railroad frauds, 96, 
97 ; Financial Agent Kimpton, 97, 98 ; Legislative ring— Printing frauds, 99, 100 ; President 
suspends habeas corpus in nine counties — Causes of disorder, 100, 101 ; Moses elected Gover- 
nor — High taxes — Fall of values— Tax sales — Tax-payers' Convention, 101, ir"2 ; Fruitless 
mission of Committee to Washington, 102, 103 ; Patterson elected Senator — Bribery — Corrupt 
use by Moses of pardoning power, 104 ; Two hundred trial justices who could not read or 
write, 104, 105 ; Chamberlain elected Governor— Efforts at reform, 105, 106 ; Moses and 
Whipper elected judges— Chamberlain refuses to commission them, 107-109 ; Race conflicts, 
109; Hampton elected — Democratic administration — Peace — Order — Reduced taxes — In- 
creased values — Prosperity, 109, 110. 



CHAPTER V. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. 

Condition in 1865 — opportunity for statesmanship, 112 ; Harsh measures — Freedman'a 
Bureau — Amnesty proclamation — Confiscation proceedings, 114 ; James Johnson, provisional 
Governor — State Convention — State obligations repudiated, 115, 116 ; General Assembly laws 
— Stephens and Herschel Johnson elected Senators, 116, 117 ; Members of Congress-elect 
refused admission— Freedman's Bureau provokes irritation between races, 118 ; Reconstruc- 
tion Acts of 1867 — Convention — Foster Blodgett — Gen. Pope in the Convention — Meade suc- 
ceeds Pope and seizes State revenues, 120-122 ; Gov. Jenkins — Bill for injunction in Supreme 
Court — Constitution, its provisions — Eligibility of negro to oflSce — Constitution declared rati- 



^jj. CONTENTS. 

fied-Gov Bullock, 122, 123; General Assembly-Remarkable manner of organizing- 
Meade'8 refusal to interfere, 124, 125 ; Joshua Hill and Miller elected U. S. Senators-Negro 
members unseated-Supreme Court decides in favor of right of negro, 12G, 127; Military 
methods of administration depicted-Ashburn case-exasperating proceedings. 127-130 ; 
Gov. Bullock and test oath-Special Act of Congress to promote reconstruction of the State- 
"The Government has determined in this Republic Republicans shall rule," 130, 131 ; 
House organized by Harris detailed by Governor-his rulings-Gen. Terry helps decide 
questions of eligibility of members of General Assembly, 132 ; Congress decides Georgia was 
a State in the Union before it had passed supplemental act reconstructing her, 133 ; Extrava- 
gance-Railroad legislation, 133-135 ; H. I. Kimball-Foster Blodgett again-Debt, increase 
of, 135-137 ; Election law of 1870— Exciting campaign— State redeemed, 138, 139. 



CHAPTER VI. • 

RKCONSTRUCTION IN FI^ORIDA. 

The two factions of the Republican party— Reed and Billings, 140 ; Geo. W. Scott, Demo- 
cratic candidate for Governor— Election methods— Reed declared elected and new Constitu- 
tion ratified, Ul ; Reed's good beginning, 142; Salaries I860 and 1868, compared, 142, 113 ; 
Rapid increase of expenditures-figures, 143, 144 ; Election law— Public advertising— secret 
fund, 145 ; Factional troubles— Gov. Reed's quo warranto vs. Lt. Gov. Gleason as non-resident- 
Secretary State Alden removed, 145 ; Impeachment proceedings against Gov. Reed- Report 
sustaining charges— Charges of bribery— Reconciliation of factions, 146, 147 ; Sale of Pa. & 
Ga. R. R,148; A Cabinet officer, two State Senators and Gen. Littlefleld indicted fur 
bribery- One convicted and pardoned— Public credit suff"ering, 149 ; Expenses 1860, 1869 com- 
pared, 150 ; Impeachment proceedings against Reed still pending — Florida R. R. Co. in 
Court— exposures, 151-153 ; A forged law— attempted use of it, 153, 154 ; Election for Con- 
gressman and Lt. Governor — False certificates, 155 ; New Legislature— forged returns, 156 ; 
Gleason's remarkable entrj' into the Legislature from Dade, 156, 157; Increase in debt and 
taxation — figures, 157, 158 ; Governor complains of Littlefield's frauds, 158 ; Impeachment 
revived — articles unanimously adopted by General Assembly — Democratic Lt. Governor about 
to get office by judgment of the court and impeachment dropped, 158, 159; Elections for 
Governor and Congressmen — methods and results, 159, 160; Republican Gov. Hart's plain 
words— Bribery— Thieving— Election frauds, 160, 161 ; Hart's eff'orts ineffectual — " Gala day 
for the colored brother," 161, 162 ; Election methods and cases, 162-164 ; Congressman Pur- 
man on Governor Stearns, 165 ; Prostitution of U. S. Qourts, 165 ; Fall of values, 1867 to 
1875 — figures, 166 ; Receipts and expenditures- figures — school statistics — Comparisons — 
Figures, 167, 168. 



CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER VII. 

RKCONSTRUCTION in TENNESSEE. 

Against secession, but seceded when coercion attempted, 170 ; Andrew Johnson military 
Governor, Lincoln plan — Military Gov. Johnson's proclamation for county elections in 
March, 1864 — Few votes, 171, 172; Presidential campaign of 18G1 — Enrollment of militia, 
— Gov. Johnson ordered test-oath — Nashville Convention plan — Soldiers six months in state 
to vote — McClellan ticket withdrawn, 172-175 ; Small vote at Presidential election— Johnson 
elected Vice-President— Ex-Committee call Convention at Nashville for 9th January, 1865, 
175 ; Convention met — Few delegates had credentials fi'om primary meetings — Abolishes 
slavery — Suspends statutes of limitations — AfiRrms Gov. Johnson's acts— Legislates — Nomi- 
nates Brownlow for Governor, 176 ; Election February 22d, 176 ; Another election March 
4th — Peculiar general ticket system— Brownlow chosen, a Legislature also, 177 ; Confederacy 
failing — Legislature convenes April 2d— Brownlow inaugurated April 5th, 178; Lee's sur- 
render — Disposition of returning Confederates, 178, 179 ; View of Governor and Legislature — 
Law excluding Confederates from ballot-box — Proscriptive legislation, 171^, 180; Governor's 
proclamation, threatening those who may violate election law — His address, 181, 182; 
August election for members of Congress— Votes of 29 counties cast out — Results — Members- 
elect not admitted, 182, 183 ; Brov.'nlow's views on negro suffrage, 184, 185; Legislation as 
to freedmen, 185 ; More proscriptive legislation, 185, 186 ; Proceedings to obtain quorum in 
Legislature— Habeas corpus granted by Judge Frazier— His impeachment and conviction, 
187, 188 ; Fourteenth Amendment adopted — Tennessee members and Senators admitted — 
President Johnson's message thereupon, 188, 189 ; Gov. Brownlow's message — Confederates 
excluded from jury-box— Negroes enfranchised — Tests to exclude Confederates made more 
rigid, 190, 191 ; The Brownlow militia -Extraordinary powers— Factions — Conservative and 
Radical Repub. leans — Radicals nominate Brownlow — Conservatives, Etheridge— The canvass 
— The State Guards— Their organization — Their conduct during the canvass — Brownlow's 
faction triumphant, 193-198; The Alden ring at Nashville, its outrages and robberies, 198- 
200 ; New Legislature, October, 1867 — Ratifies Brownlow's irregtilar or unlawful acts — Its 
legislation — County guards— county police— Sheriff paid as captain of infanti-y, etc., 2^0-2'^ 3; 
The Ku-klux — Call on Gen. Thomas for U. S. troops— Extra session — Petition for repeal of 
franchise law — More amendments to militia law — Law against Ku-klux, 203-210 ; Origin of 
Ku-klux Klan, 210 ; Presidential election, 1868. 210 ; Governor proclaims martial law in 
certain counties — Brownlow elected Senator — D. W. C. Senter, Speaker of the House, 
inaugurated Governor, 212 ; Extravagance and corruption of 34th General Assemblj- — Cost 
of State Guards— Increase of debt, 212-214 ; The August election approaching— Stokes, 
Radical, and Senter, Conservative Republican, candidates — issue the repeal of the fran- 
chise law — Senter and Conservative Legislature elected — Constitutional Convention January^ 
1870 — Peace and prosperity, 214, 215. 



^ CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 

Conventions at Wheeling May 13th and June llth-Convention elected Picrpoint 
Governor and two U. S. Senators-Congressmen elected in May-Congress recogni/el 
Wheeling Government, 216, 217 ; New state proposed-Attorney-General Bates' protest, 
217, 218; West Virginia formed-How, 219-221; Restored Virginia at Alexandria- Gen. 
Ben Butler's derisive treatment-Pierpoint's appeal to Lincoln, 221-224 ; Lincoln's theory 
of Restoration-Evidence as to, 225-230 ; Pierpoint's Government in Richmond repeals 
disfranchising laws and completes reorganization of state, 230-232; Representatives of 
Virginia barred out of Congress-Why ? 232-234 ; Mr. Stevens-The Committee of Fifteen, 
234-236; Review— Military rule— Freedman's Bureau, 236-238; Legislation respecting 
freedmen, 238-244 ; The Courts under Reconstruction, 244-249 ; Virginia " civiliter mortuus" 
—Gen. Stonemau's Report— Republican factions— The Committee of Nine— Disfranchising 
clauses stricken out—Constitution adopted— State restored, 249-253 ; The Constitutional 
question— Practically settled forever— Conclusion, 257. 



CHAPTER IX. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 

Division of sentiment on questions relating to Civil War — Many in both armies. 258, 
259 ; Constitution of 1863, 260 ; First appearance of test oath, 261 ; Election fall of 1864 — 
Little opposition to Republican candidates — Election law amended in February, 1805 — 
Remarkable provisions, 261-263 ; Proposed constitutional amendment, 263 ; How control 
over the suffrage was given to the Governor, 264, 205 ; Test-oath to punish certain at- 
torney s-at- law, 264, 265 ; How constitutional amendment was adopted, 266, 267 ; Prtscrip- 
tivo legislation— No Virginian allowed to sue a loyal West Virginian, 267, 268 ; More 
proscription, 1868 — Andrew Johnson must be impeached and West Virginia tenders her 
assistance to the United States — Special acts to allow attorneys to practice — Also a young 
lady to teach school without test-oath, 268, 269; Democrats successful in elections 1S7U — 
Review of conditions imposed by Legislature on Ex- Confederates, 270-272 ; How the state 
Courts sustained these laws, remarkable decisions — Cases cited, 272-276; Democratic Con- 
stitution of 1872 ended this class of litigation, 276 ; Decisions of state courts on the new 
legislation and of the U. S. Supreme Court cited, 270-278 ; Attorney's test-oath case— The 
■State Court vs. U. S. Supreme Court and resolution of Legislature, 279 ; Edwin M. Stanton 
appears in a test-oath case— U. S. Distiict Courts in contrast with state Courts, 279 ; Jud£o 



CONTENTS. XI 

Nathaniel Harrison — His career on both sides of the line, 279-281 ; Col. Hounshell, ex- 
Confederate, kicked out of capitol for making charges against Harrison — Eesolutions 
thereon, 281, 282 ; Harrison's subsequent career -It brings upon him new articles of 
impeachment — He flees the state — Kesigns — Dies in Denver,- Colorado, 282-284; Democrats 
successful in 1870 — Proscription passed — Prosperity begins, 284. 



CHAPTER X. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSOURI. 

Constitutional Convention called by act of February, 1864 — Section III. of Constitution, 
285-286 ; Election for ratification — Test-oath— Gen. Blair, 288 — Ex parte Cummings— Sales of 
railroads, 289-290 ; Fraudulent county bonds — Supreme Court decisions — Judge and County 
Attorney shot to death — Conclusion, 291-293. 

CHAPTER XI. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 

Condition at close of war— Election of delegates to Constitutional Convention — Submitted 
to people, 295-296 ; Constitution submitted under law requiring majority of registered vote — 
Law changed after election had begun, too late for notice to reach voters, 296-297 ; jMartial 
law — Negro Militia — Adjt.-Gen. Dausforth's letter — Militia outrages amnestied, 299 — Election 
laws and methods, 300-301 — Erasing registration books, 301 — Throwing out counties and pre- 
cincts, 301-302 ; Election methods and laws, instances, 302-305 — Revenues — Oppressive Taxa- 
tion, 305-306 — Extravagant expenditures — Particular instances — Figures — Tax sales, 306-308 
— County and school district debts incurred, 308-399 — Fraudulent bonds to railroads, 310 ; 
Levee taxes and bonds, 310-311 — The Real Estate Bank and the North American Trust and 
Banking Co. — The ring exposed, 311-312 ; Bribery instances, 312-313 ; Miscellaneous out- 
rages — Many from Poland's Report, 315-320. 

CHAPTER XII. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 

Andrew Johnson on Reconstruction Acts, 321 ; Gov. Clarke calls Legislature to restore 
relations of the State to the Uuion — Legislature dissolved by military order — Gov. Clarke 
arrested, 321-323 ; President appoints Sharkey Provisional Governor — Constitutional Conven- 
tion, composed almost exclusively of Union men — Its work, 323-325 ; President informs Con- 



CONTENTS, 
xu 

,ress-MissisHippiandother8tatesarerestored-Gen.Grant'sreportastoconditionofthe South, 
30^326 • Congress refuses to admit Congressmen elect-Abolishes civil government of state- 
Substitutes Military rule-Enfranchises and disfranchises-Most of the whites abstain fron. 
voting for delegates to convention-A few capable and good men elected, 327-328 ; Consftu- 
tional Convention-Its membership-Its work-Test-oath. provided for trials away from 
locale by alleged crime-Mixed public schools, 328-330; Constitution rejected-EtTorts to 
overcome rejection-Committee of five, 330-332-Congress orders another election-Negn-e. 
driUed-Loyal League-Unfair apportionment-Kepublicans successful-State reconstructed, 
332-333; Legislature, complexion-United States Senators-Negro and army oihcer Amcs- 
Conflict of races organized-Freedman's Savings Bank-Character of officials, 333-335 ; Par- 
tisan judges-Spies-Military, 335-336; Gov. Ames declares it an " issue of race "-Educa- 
tional system-The Chief embezzled, forged, stole and fled the state, 337-Profligacy and 
extravagance, 338; Tax-payers' prayer, 338-339; Hon. Eugene Hale, description by, 339- 
3i0; State redeemed in 1875-Keduction of taxation-Kedemption of lands sold for taxes, 
340-342 ; Education-Dr. Mayo, 342 ; What Abraham Lincoln taught, 343-344 ; Lincoln to 
Shepley-Henry Ward Beecher, 344^-345 ; Lessons of History, 346-347 ; Concluding observa- 
tions, 347-348. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 

Condition at close of War— comparatively prosperous in 1865, 349 ; Andrew J. Ham- 
ilton appointed Provisional Governor— New Constitu.ion adopted— Throckmorton elected 
Governor— his inaugural address, 351-353 ; Slavery abolished— War debt repudiated— Ordi- 
nance of secession declared null, 353 ; Telegram from President Johnson— Throckmorton's 
conservatism, 353-355 ; Freedman's Bureau operations, 356 ; Burning of town of Brenham 
by drunken soldiers— Indignation— Committee reports facts, 35G, 357 ; Murders in Gauda- 
loupe County— Circumstances, 357-359; Governor Throckmorton's corre-pondence on Ihe 
subject with Gen. Sheridan and Brig.-Gen. Oakes, 360-365; Reconstruction Acts passed — 
Gov. Throckmorton accepts situation — Continues under Gen. Sheridan, 366 ; Gen. Sheridan 
removes Throckmorton— Appoints Pea^e, 307 ; Pease asks Gen. Hancock to appoint mili- 
tary tribunals— Hancock's refusal — Hancock removed — Military commissions — Prostrate 
judiciary, 308; Reconstruction Convention— Pease recommends Convention to di>franchise 
number sufficient to place state in hands of loyal persons, etc., 309 ; Character of Consti- 
tution—Davis made Governor -12th Legislature — Bribery and corruption 369,370; Passage 
of law authorizing Governor to select and enroll militia and to d clare martial law, 371, 
372 ; Law of July 1, 1870, established "state police" and gave Governor absolute power 
over all executive officer^, 372, 373 ; Terrorism under Davis— Gathings case, 374, 375 ; 
Oongressional elections October, 1871— Methods, 375, 376 ; Walker, Limestone and Free- 



CONTENTS. xiii 

stone Counties, martial law in, 376, 377 ; Indebtedness of towns and counties increased 
377 ; Increase of taxation and state debt— Credit destroyed— School fund robbed — Election 
of Democratic Governor and Legislature— Eesto-ation of credit — Reduction of taxation, 
378, 379; Increase of population — Capital— School funds — Low taxes — Prosperous schools 
— No discrimination on account of color, 379-381 ; Conclusion, 381, 382. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN I.OUISIANA. 

Introductory — Situation, 383-385 ; Steps from War to Peace — Election of Governor Hahn, 
February, 1864 — Election for Constitution, September 1864, 385, 386 ; Lincoln's course — Joint 
Resolution of Legislature, 387-389 ; The riot of July, 1866— Causes, 389-392 ; Military Gov- 
ernment in Peace— Sheridan — Hancock — Packard — Registration methods— Methods under 
Lincoln, at war, 1864 — Methods in peace, 1^68, under reconstruction— Contrasted, 392-397 ; 
The Advent of Warmothism — Methods— Board of Registration — Expenses— Returning Board 
methods — Bribery — Instances and figures, 397-403 ; Warmothism — Expenditures contrasted 
— Debt and taxation— Figures — Constabulary law — Metropolitan Police— Catling and Napol- 
eon guns— Infantry, cavalry, artillery and state navy— How Governor obtained control of 
judiciary— Complete Dictatorship — Profligacy and corruption— United States troops and 
Deputy Marshals— Republican factions at War — General Emery interferes— Election of 1872 
— Disputed result — Kellogg vs. Warmoth — Warmoth's hitherto unsigned law — Durell's Mid- 
night order — Senator Carpenter's Report — United States artillery in possession of State Capi- 
tol — Kellogg installed— Colfax Riot, 403-417 ; Warmoth-Kelloggism — Metropolitan Police 
increased — Cavalry — Artillery — Tax resisters — Registration and election laws improved on — 
Profits of debt scaling — Figures — Collisions between people and military — Democratic vic- 
tory of 1874 reversed by Returning Board — De Trobriand — Troops march Democrats out of 
Legislative Hall — They again disperse legal Legislature in 1875— General Sheridan, 417-424 ; 
Final struggle for supremacy — Democrats victorious — Returning Board again, 424-427 ; 
Shrinking of values — Figures — Increase of debt— Figures— Conclusion, 424-429. 

CHAPTER XV. 

SUNRISE. 

Prosperity follows the restoration of good govprnment — South advancing — The last 
decade — Figures from Manufacturer's Record, as to assessed values, railroads, agricultural 
products, mining, manufacturing, banking, 430-434 ; Rates of percentage of increase three- 
fold greater South than North and West, 435 ; Vice-President Morton's interview, 436, 437 ; 
Education of the negro— Statistics, 43S, 439 ; The race question, 4'>9-142. — Appendix, 4t3. 



PREFACE. 



PEKHAPS in no particular is the intellectual pro- 
gress of this age more notable than in the ever 
increasing public demand for accurate history. In 
the phenomena of preceding ages we seek the causes 
of existing conditions. Of these existing conditions 
the most potent factor is to be found, of course, in 
the immediate past. The lessons drawn from recent 
experience will ahvays, therefore, be the most valu- 
able that history can teach ; provided only we get 
the facts correctly before us. The difficulties when 
one writes of what happened only twenty and twenty- 
five years ago are twofold, resting both with the 
writer and the reader. The former must school himself 
to an impartial study of his topic that he may write 
correctly; the latter must endeavor to lay aside pre- 
judice that he may judge fairly. The authors of the 
articles which comprise this volume, each agreed 
when he undertook the task assigned him to write as 
impartially as possible, to "understate rather than to 



XV 



^^.l PREFACE. 

overstate facts." In like manner the reader is in- 
vited to judge calmly and dispassionately of the 
statements these writers have made, and draw his 
own inferences. He may possibly conclude that each 
has failed in greater or less degree in his effort to 
write dispassionately; but he wall probably be more 
ready to overlook any exhibitions, if such there be, 
of temper, that ought to have been restrained, w^hen 
he remembers that we were all parts of what we 
relate. 

" Quis talia fando 
Myrmidonum, Dolopumve aut duri miles Ulixei, 
Temperet a lacrimis ? " 

A complete history of reconstruction in all the 
states would fill many volumes. The plan of this 
work has been to condense into a chapter the con- 
trolling facts in relation to each state. It is hoped 
that we may thus arrest the attention of men who 
can devote to public ajffairs only a few hours of their 
time. 

Each article is signed by its author, who thus be- 
comes directly responsible for the truth of his state- 
ments. 

The parallelism throughout the history of all these 
states, whether in lines of retrogression or of pro- 
gress, furnishes a striking illustration of the truism. 
— Like causes produce like effects. 



PKEFACE. xvii 

This work has not been undertaken with any such 
impracticable purpose as agitating for the repeal of 
the Fifteenth Amendmentj or for the deportation of 
the negro. Its object is to show to the public, and 
more especially to those business men of the North, 
who have made investments in the South, or who 
have trade relations with their Southern fellow- 
citizens, the consequences which once followed an 
interference in the domestic affairs of certain states 
by those, who either did not understand the situation 
or were reckless of results. A thorough comprehen- 
sion of the facts we attempt to portray will, it is be- 
lieved, at least aid the reader in deciding what ought 
not to be done by the Federal Government. Even 
this much will be of value in the solution of one of 
the pressing problems of to-day, for, however it may 
be in morals, in statesmanship, it is undoubtedly true 
that sins of commission are generally more fatal than 
sins of omission. 

Hilary A. Herbert. 

April 1, 1890. 



WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

OR, 

RECONSTRUCTION AND ITS RESULTS 



CHAPTER I. 

RECONSTRUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 

UNDER ABRAHAM I,INCOI,N. 

I'^HE death of Abraham Lincoln was an appalling calam- 
ity- — especially to the South, Had the crazy assassin 
withheld his hand, reconstruction could never have been 
formulated, as it was, into the Acts of March 2d and 
March 23d, 1867. 

Mr. Lincoln's leading thought in the conduct of the war 
was the preservation of the Government of the fathers; 
and he took issue squarely with those who, like Mr. Sum- 
ner, were seeking to take advantage of the times and ^' change 
this Government from its original form and make it a strong 
centralized power. ''"^ He believed the Government to 
be, as Chief Justice Chase afterwards defined it, in Texas 
vs. White, '^ an indestructible union composed of indestruc- 
tible states. " Upon this idea of the constitution he based 
his theory of restoration, — a theory which, at the time of 
his death, was well known, though it appears to have since 
been industriously forgotten. This theory was, that the 
insurrectionary states, notwithstanding the w*ar, still ex- 
isted as states — that they were never out of the Union 
and were always subject to the constitution. Hence it 

* Nicolay and Hay's " Lincoln.'"— Century, Oct., 1889. 

1 



2 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

followed that those people of these several states, who were 
entitled to vote by the laws existing at the date of the at- 
tempted acts of secession, had, when they returned to their 
alleo-iance and were pardoned, the power of reconstruction 
in their own hands. On this theory President Lincoln 
aided the people to set up state governments in Tennessee, 
Louisiana and Arkansas— all without any aid from Congress. 

But from the beginning there were eminent Republicans 
in Congress who denied the authority of the President to 
"intermeddle," as they called it, in this business. As 
early as 1861, Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, had an- 
nounced the doctrine, that the constitution and laws were 
suspended where they could not be enforced ; that those who 
had defied them could not invoke their protection, and that 
Congress could legislate for such rebellious territory outside 
of and without regard to the Constitution. 

Mr. Sumner laid down the proposition, in resolutions 
introduced February 11th, 1862, that, by attempting to 
secede, a state had committed suicide, and its soil had 
become territory subject to the supreme control of Con- 
gress. Both of these theories, which did not differ in result, 
denied to the President any power whatever in the premises. 

But Mr. Lincoln seems always to have stood on the declara- 
tion made by Congress in July, 1861 : that the war was 
being waged " to defend the Constitution and all laws in pur- 
suance thereof, and to preserve the union, with all the dignitv, 
equality and rights of the several states unimpaired; tliat as 
soon as these objects were aocompUshed, the icar ought to 
cease, " &c. 

Pursuing steadily the spirit of these resolutions, even 
down to the day of his unhappy death, reconstruction as 
practiced by him was, simply, restoration of civil author- 
ity in the insurgent, but still existent states by the people 
thereof, aided by the military power of the United States. 

More than two years af\er this question of power had 
begun to be mooted in Congress the President formulated 
and communicated to that body, in his message of Decem- 
ber 8th, 1863, the plan he proposed thereafter to follow. 
In no material particular did it differ from the theory 



EECONSTKUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 3 

upon which he had theretofore acted. He said : '^ Looking 
now to the 2)resent and future, and with reference to a resump- 
tion of the national authority within the states wherein that 
authority has been suspended, I have thought fit to issue 
a proclamation, a copy of which is herewith transmitted.'' 

In the proclamation, embracing the plan, he offers par- 
don to all who will swear ''henceforth'^ to support the 
Constitution of the United States, &c., and proclaims that 
when those who, accepting this amnesty, shall have taken 
the oath of allegiance, each '' being a qualified voter by the 
election laws of the state, existing immediateli) before the so- 
called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re-es- 
tablish a state government, which shall be republican and 
in no wise contravening said oath ; such shall be recognized 
as the true government of the state,^' etc., etc. 

This was President Lincoln's plan for restoring the in- 
surgent states to the Union ; it left the question of suf- 
frage entirely in the hands of those who were qualified to 
vote under the laws existing at the date of secession. It was 
precisely this proposition — viz., that each insurgent state, 
at the time of rehabilitation, must decide for itself whether 
it would adopt negro suffrage — that angered the Republicans 
in Congress when acted on by Andrew Johnson ; and culmi- 
nated in the impeachment proceedings. 

But Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson were two dif- 
ferent persons. Johnson was pugnacious — seeking always to 
beat down his adversary and never to conciliate. Lincoln, 
on the other hand, never needlessly antagonized those who 
could be won to his views, though he was accustomed to adhere 
to his matured opinions with inflexible purpose ; as we shall 
see he did in this case, in the face of the fiercest op])osition. 

When this message of December, 1863, went in, many of 
the Republican leaders were claiming for Congress exclusive 
jurisdiction over the question of reconstruction under the 
clause of the Constitution which declares that : '' The United 
States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a repub- 
lican form of government." The counter-claim by the Pres- 
ident, that he could aid the people to set up governments for 
themselves, seemed a challenge. 



4 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Congress debated the question at length, and finally, in July, 
1864, passed, by a small majority in each House, a bill "to 
guarantee to certain states a republican form ot government." 

This bill did not meet the wishes of extremists, because it 
did not give the ballot to the negro ; but, if it became law, 
it would be a step gained for the extremists. It asserted the 
jurisdiction of Congress and provided expressly that the 
President should recognize by proclamation the state govern- 
ments established under it, only ^' after obtaining the consent 
of Congress. " The President refused to approve the bill and 
defeated it by a " pocket veto." July 9th he made a public 
statement, giving reasons for his course. The bill, he said, 
was received by him only one hour before the adjournment 
of Congress, and, among other things, he thought that the 
system of restoration it provided was " one very proper for 
the loyal people of any state choosing to adopt it. " But he 
clearly was opposed to forcing it on any state by law, as he 
went on to say that he would at all times be " prepared to give 
the Executive aid and assistance to any such peo])Ie ; " that is, 
people who should " choose to adopt it, " the Congressional 
plan, " when the insurrection should be suppressed, " etc. 
Senator Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis re- 
sponded in an angry protest. To the admirers of Mr. Lincoln 
this document, dated in July, 1864, contains charges that are 
astounding. After stating that the signers had read the pro- 
clamation "without surprise, but not without indignation," 
the protest contends that want of time for examination was a 
false pretense. " Ignorance of its contents is out of the ques- 
tion," says the manifesto ; and then argues that Mr. Lincoln 
was cognizant of a plan by which " the bill would be staved 
off in the Senate to a period too late in the session to require 
the President to veto it in order to defeat it, and that he," 
the President, " would retain the bill if necessary, and thereby 
defeat it. " 

The protest further says : " The President, by preventing 
this bill from becoming a law, holds the electoral votes of the 
rebel states at the dictation of his personal ambition," and 
complains that the will of Congress is to be " held for nought 
unless the loyal people of the rebel states choose to adopt it.'' 



EECONSTRUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 5 

It also calls Mr. Lincoln's action ^^ a studied outrage on the 
legislative rights of the people.'^ 

Here the issue was squarely made whether the President was / 
to restore or the Congress to reconstruct the insurgent states./ 

The President went on his way. 

Long after his plan of restoration had been published to the 
world his party, in convention assembled, had approved his 
" practical wisdom," " unselfish patriotism " and " unswerving 
fidelity to the Constitution,'^ and now, in November, 1864, on 
this platform, Mr. Lincoln received 212 electoral votes to 
21 for George B. McClellan. 

On the 5th of December, 1864, the President sent in his last 
annual message, which was without any allusion to the question 
of reconstruction, unless it was in his mind when, speaking of 
the insurgents, he said : " They can at any moment have 
peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the 
national authority under the Constitution ;" and its closing 
words possibly had reference to the same subject : " In stating 
a single condition of peace, I mean to say that the war will 
cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have 
ceased on the part of those who began it.'' 

It is very clear that up to this point Mr. Lincoln was de- 
termined never to become a party to any political war upon 
the Southern states waged for the purpose of compelling them 
to range under a political banner. 

Congress, during the session that ended 1864-65, either did 
not care or did not dare to insist on any reassertion of its right 
to reconstruct. On the contrary, seeing, as it undoubtedly 
did, that the Confederacy was about to collapse, it adjourned 
on the 4th of March, leaving Mr. Lincoln an open field for 
his policy of restoration. Every member of that Congress 
knew what that policy was. It meant ihe promptest possible 
restoration of civil authority in the states by the aid of Exec- 
utive power. And so, now, shortly before his death, the 
President went on to prepare, or cause to be prepared, the 
proclamation for the restoration of North Carolina, which was 
issued by his successor, Andrew Johnson, May 29th, 1865, and 
was the basis of all Mr. Johnson's subsequent work in that 
field. 



g WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Mr. McCuUoch, Secretary of the Treasury during the last 
few weeks of Lincoln's and throughout the whole of Johnson's 
administration, says, in his " Men and Measures of Half a 
Century," p. 378 : " The very same instrument for restoring 
the national authority over North Carolina and placing her 
where she stood before her attempted secession, which had been 
approved by Mr. Lincoln, was, by Mr. Stanton, presented at 
the first Cabinet meeting which was held at the Executive 
Mansion after Mr. Lincoln's death, and, having been carefully 
considered at two or three meetings, was adopted as the re- 
construction policy of the Administration." 

On the 18th day of July, 1867, Geu Grant, before the Re- 
construction Committee, said that, according to his recollection, 
*' the very paper (the North Carolina proclamation) which I 
heard read twice while Mr. Lincoln was President was the one 
which was carried right through," by President Johnson. 

In the face of these facts it is remarkable that intelligent 
public opinion should seem to have since settled down to the 
conclusion that the restoration policy of Andrew Johnson was 
a departure from that of Abraham Lincoln. Upon the all 
important and controlling point, that the people of each state 
were to settle for themselves the question of suffrage, this being 
a constitutional right they had not lost, the views of Lincoln 
and Johnson were identical. 

It would seem that Mr. Blaine holds a different opinion. 
He says, in discussing the North Carolina proclamation as is- 
sued by Johnson, vol. II. p. 77, "Twenty Years in Congress" : 

"It was specially provided in the Proclamation that in 
choosing delegates to any state convention no person shall be 
qualified as an elector or eligible as a member, unless he shall 
have previously taken the pi'escribed oath of allegiance and 
unless he shall also possess the qualifications of a voter as de- 
fined under the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, as 
they existed on the 20th May, 1861, immediately prior to the 
so-called ordinance of secession. Mr. Lincoln had in mind, 
as was shown by his letter to Gov. Hahn, of Louisiana, to 
try the experiment of negro suffrage, beginning with those who 
had served in the Union Army and who could read and write ; 
but President Johnson's plan confined the suffrage to white 



EECONSTRUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 7 

men, by prescribing the same qualifications as required in 
North Carolina before the war.'^ 

Not only was this North Carolina proclamation approved 
by Mr. Lincoln ; not only was it consistent with the theory he 
had so long: maintained against such fierce opposition ; not 
only did it leave the question of suffrage exactly where it was 
left by the message of December 8th, 1863 ; but the very letter 
referred to by Mr. Blaine, to show a difference between the 
views of the two statesmen, conclusively proves, when quoted 
fully, that they both believed that, as was provided in the 
proclamation Mr. Blaine was discussing, suffrage was a matter 
for the states to regulate. 

Mr. Lincoln's letter to Gov. Hahn says: "Now you are 
about to have a convention which, among other things, will 
probably define the elective franehise, I barely suggest, for your 
private consideration, whether some of the colored people may 
not be let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent, and espe- 
cially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. 

" But this is only a suggestion, not to the public, but to you 
alone.^' 

Andrew Johnson made a similar suggestion when he wrote, 
August 15th, 1865, to Gov. Sharkey, of Mississippi : " If you 
could extend the elective franchise to all persons of color who 
can read the Constitution of the United States in English and 
write their names, and to all persons of color who own real 
estate valued at not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, 
and pay taxes thereon, you would completely disarm the ad- 
versary and set an example that other states will follow.^' 

The difference was that Andrew Johnson did not say : " This \ 
is only a suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone.^^ 

The letter to Gov. Hahn does show that Mr. Lincoln would 
have been glad to have the states, in regulating the suffrage, 
make certain exceptions in favor of the negro — exceptions that 
w^ould not probably embrace ten per cent, of the colored male 
adults in any Southern state, and could therefore have done no 
harm — but the letter also clearly shows that he thought it 
would be an unwarrantable interference with the rights of the 
state for the President of the United States to do more than 
make a private suggestion about the matter. That the writer 



8 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

of this letter would ever have consented to put negro suffrage 
upon the states by a law of Congress is inconceivable; unless 
there had come some radical change in his opinions; and this 
cannot be shown. 

If no better evidence can be adduced than this offered by 
Mr. Blaine to show a difference between the plans of two 
Presidents, and we have seen none, then we are authorized to 
conclude that the Presidential plan remained the same, from 
the time it was inaugurated by Mr. Lincoln, in 1862, down to 
the date when, in March, 1867, Congress concluded to destroy 
the state governments, which the people, acting in accordance 
with that plan, had set up for themselves — some of them under 
Lincoln's and others under Johnson's supervision. 

In discussing the motives which influenced Congress in re- 
fusing to recognize and in finally overthrowing these govern- 
ments and demanding constitutional amendments, a great 
American law writer, Judge J. Clark Hare, himself a Repub- 
lican in politics, in his recent work on American Constitutional 
Law p. 747, says : " When the South was prostrated by the 
Rebellion, the dominant party resolved on measures that 
would tend to keep them in power and might be necessary for 
the protection of the colored race." 

The author, pursuing, as he declares in his preface, "juris- 
prudence with an eye single to truth," here affirms that the 
controlling motive of Congress in reconstructing the states and 
the constitution was partisan ; with as much confidence as if his 
statement were based on a decision of the Supreme Court. 

ANDREW JOHNSON AND RESTORATION. 

Congress adjourned March 4th, 1865, not to convene again 
untd the first Monday in December, unless called to meet in 
extra session. 

Johnson was inaugurated President on the 14th of April, 
1865, just as the Confederacy fell. As he intended to carry 
on the work of restoration upon the lines laid down by his 
great predecessor, he needed no aid from Congress ; and so it 
seemed to be a happy contingency that it was not in session. 
In his Cabmet were Seward, McCulloch, Stanton, Welles 



EECONSTEUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 9 

Dennison, Harlan and Speed, — the same strong men gathered 
around his council board by the late President, and all still 
in favor of the Lincoln plan of restoration. 

The sudden collapse of the Confederacy was remarkable. 
Within forty days from the date when General Johnston gave 
up his sword there was not a single Confederate soldier in 
arms. The surrender was complete. Submission to the au- 
thority of the United States was everywhere absolute. Courts 
were established ; the postal service rehabilitated ; tax collect- 
ors and tax assessors went about their business. 

On the 29th of May, President Johnson issued the procla- 
mation that had been approved by President Lincoln for the 
restoration of civil government of North Carolina. William H. 
Holden was appointed provisional governor, with authority to 
call a convention to frame a constitution of government for 
the State. Proclamations, similar to that for North Carolina, 
followed for South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and 
other States. 

The people of the late Confederate States accepted with 
readiness the Presidential policy of reconstruction. In fact, the 
unanimity with which those who had waged such a desperate 
conflict against the Union now took again the oath of alle- 
giance to the Constitution of the United States was a phenom- 
enon that startled the Republican politicians ; and it must have 
inspired distrust in the minds of many honest Northern voters. 

But it was all in the utmost good faith ; and it was not 
strange. 

From the days when the agitation of the slavery question' 
began to divide the country into two sections, the South alwoys 
talked more about and cared more for the Constitution, which! 
it looked to for the protection of its property rights in slaves,! 
than did the North, which relied on its majority of voters to 
maintain whatever views of public policy it might happen to 
entertain. Thus it came about that the South was as devoted 
to the Constitution as was the North uncompromising for the 
Union. When, therefore, the Southern states had seceded, the 
Constitution of the United States became the constitution of 
the Confederate States, with such changes only as would em- 
phasize and make still clearer the reserved powers of the states. 



IQ WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

It is simply history to say, that the people of the Confederate 
States looked upon themselves, during the late war, as fighting 
to perpetuate the Constitution of their fathers. Slavery they 
deemed merely an incident. Secession they regarded simply 
as a method by which they could place themselves in position 
to forever maintain inviolate the Constitution of 1789. Noth- 
ing but the spirit of liberty, however mistaken it may have 
been, could have animated slave-holder and non-slave-holder 
to make side by side that terrible struggle of four years for 
the Confederacy, just as similar noble impulses animated the 
people of the Northern States to pour out so much of their 
blood and treasure for the Union. 

When the Confederacy had died, and independence was no 
longer possible, slavery, it was apparent, had gone down forever. 
Secession, too, was dead. These two obstacles removed, the 
pathway to progress in the Union seemed open, and Southern 
people were invited now by Johnson, as they had been by 
Lincoln, to come back and claim the protection of the Con- 
stitution under which they were born. They had never, in 
fact, lived under any other. 

And now it is quite clear how the Southern people could and 
did attempt to resume their places in the Union with far 
greater unanimity than prevailed among them when attempt- 
ing to go out. 

Shortly after the assembling of Congress in December, 1865, 
the President was able to report that the people of North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Lou- 
isiana, Arkansas and Tennessee had reorganized their State 
governments. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, abolishing slavery, had been adopted 
by twenty-seven states, the requisite three- fourths of the whole 
number, the reconstructed government of five of the seceding 
states having been counted as part of the twenty-seven. 

The conventions of the seceding states had all repealed or 
declared null and void the ordinances of secession. Every 
office in North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia 
and Louisiana, legislative, executive and judicial, was filled 
either by an original Union man or by one who, having been 
pardoned, had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States. 



EECONSTKUCTION AT WASHINGTON. H 

The laws were in full operation. Senators and Represen- 
tatives from most of these states were already in Washington 
asking to be seated in Congress, and the work of restoration, 
so far as it lay in the hands of the people of these states, was 
completed. The report to the President made by General 
Grant, December 18th, 1865, was a fair statement of the con- 
dition at that time of public sentiment in the South. " I am 
satisfied the mass of thinking men in the South accept the 
present situation of affairs in good faith. The questions which 
have hitherto divided the sentiment of the people of the two 
sections, slavery and state rights, or the right of the State to 
secede from the Union, they regard as having been settled for- 
ever by the highest tribunal, that of arms, that man can resort 
to. I was pleased to learn from the leading men whom I met 
that they not only accepted the decision arrived at as final, but 
now the smoke of battle has cleared away and time has been 
given for reflection, that the decision has been a fortunate one 
for the whole country, they receiving like benefits from it with 
those who opposed them in the field and in the council.^' 

But by the new State Constitutions, which the Southern 
people had made for themselves, suffrage was confined to white 
men, just as it was in Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan and other 
Northern States ; and, too, the Senators and Representatives- 
elect now asking to represent these late Confederate States 
were mostly Democrats. 

This was the situation when Con2:ress convened in Decem- 
ber, 1865. That body was largely Republican in both branches. 
Would this Republican Congress admit these Democratic 
States ? If not, upon what ground would the refusal be based ? 

CONGRESS — 1865-66 — POLITICS. 

The first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress began De- 
cember 4, 1865. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
Mr. Schuyler Colfax, upon accepting the office, said : 

'' The Thirty-eighth Congress closed its constitutional 
existence with the storm-cloud of war still hovering over us ; 
and after nine months' absence, Congress resumes its legisla- 
tive authority in these council halls, rejoicing that from shore 
to shore in our land there is peace." 



12 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The people of the Southern states had reconstructed their 
Governments upon the idea that peace had come; but this very 
same House of Representatives, which now began with this 
declaration of its Speaker, that peace reigned supreme, was to 
make war upon the state governments of the South, justify- 
ing itself upon the theory that the war was not over. The 
Presidential plan was to be disregarded. Congress, in the lan- 
guage of Mr. Thad. Stevens, henceforth its accepted leader, was 
to " take no account of the aggregation of white- washed rebels 
who, without any legal authority, have assembled in the capi- 
tals of the late rebel States and simulated legislative bodies." 

However completely this generation may have forgotten 
that Johnson's policy was Lincoln's, that Congress knew it 
well, for early in that session Mr. Sherman said in debate : 

" When Mr. Johnson came into power he found the rebel- 
lion substantially subdued. What did he do ? His first act 
was to retain in his confidence and in his councils every mem- 
ber of the Cabinet of Abraham Lincoln ; and, so far as we 
know, every measure adopted by Andrew Johnson has had 
the approval and sanction of that Cabinet." 

There can be but little doubt that if Mr. Lincoln had lived, 
he would, during 1865, have progressed at least as rapidly 
with his plan of reconstruction as did President Johnson ; 
he was always anxious to put an end to military control, and 
the successful ending of the war would have left him the most 
popular man this country has ever seen since Washington. 
Yet even Mr. Lincoln could not have avoided a struggle 
with Congress.* 

In December, 1865, Republican leaders felt that a crisis in 
the history of their party had come ; and many of them were 
ready to go to any extreme. Mr. Stevens said on the floor of 
the House of Representatives, that if the late Confederate 
States were admitted to representation in Congress under the 
Presidential plan, without any changes in the basis of repre- 
sentation, these states, with the Democrats '^ that would be 

*Mr. Stanton, near the close of his life, looking back over those exciting 
times, declared that " If Mr. Lincoln had lived, he would have had a hard 
time with his party, as he would have been at odds with it on Kecon- 
BiTuctlonJ'—McCuUoch, " 3Ien and Measures." 



KECONSTKUCTION AT WASHINGTON. I3 

elected in the best of times at the North/' would control the 
country ; and he said, on the 14th December, 1865 : 

'' According to my judgment, they (the insurrectionary 
states) ought never to be recognized as capable of acting in the 
Union or of being counted as valid states until the Constitu- 
tion shall have been so amended as to make it what its mak- 
ers intended ; and so as to secure ^perpetual ascendency to the 
party of the Unions 

Mr. Stevens had two plans : first, to reduce the .representa- 
tion to which the late slave-holding states were entitled under 
the Constitution ; secondly, to enfranchise blacks and dis- 
franchise whites. 

But the mind of the Northern voter was not yet ready for 
negro suffrage. Pennsylv^ania, Ohio and other States still 
denied it. Connecticut, in 1865, gave a majority against it of 
6,272. Even in October, 1867, Ohio gave a constitutional 
majority against colored suffrage of 50,629 ; and so late as 
November, 1867, Kansas was against negro suffrage by a 
majority of 8,938 ; while Minnesota adhered to the white 
basis by a majority of 1,298. It was perfectly clear that the 
people were not now, in the winter of 1865-66, prepared to 
endorse the extreme measures that were being mooted at 
Washington. 

What Congress would do was an interesting problem. Mr. 
Thad. Stevens, however, seems never to have doubted how it 
would be solved. He predicted that public sentiment, w^ithin 
less than two years, would come up to his position. But to 
the accomplishment of such a result time and work w^ere 
necessary. As a first step, on the 4th of December, 1865, 
the very day the Thirty-ninth Congress was organized, Mr. 
Stevens introduced and passed in the House, by a party vote 
of 133 to 36, under the previous question, without debate, a 
resolution to provide for a joint committeee of fifteen to report 
on the condition of '^ the states which formed the so-called 
Confederate States of America." The Senate assented at 
once to the formation of the joint committee, and afterwards, 
on the 23d of February, 1866, finally agreed to a concurrent 
resolution, which had been the second proposition of Mr. 
Stevens' original resolution, that neither House should admit 



l^ WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

any member from the late insurrectionary states until the 
report of the joint committee, on reconstruction, thereafter to 
be made, should be finally acted on. 

Thus it was settled, that the people most vitally interested 
in the two great problems, the basis of representation and the 
qualification of voters, were to have no part, in Congress, at 
least, in their solution. But more than that, here was time 
gained within which the effort could be made to bring the 
Northern mind up to Mr. Stevens' position. 

The joint resolution refusing admittance to Southern Repre- 
sentatives and Senators was not passed without strenuous oppo- 
sition. It was an open declaration of war upon the Presiden- 
tial plan. Mr. Raymond, of New York, a distinguished 
Republican, made a great speech in defence of the President's 
policy. Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, to break the force of Mr. 
Raymond's argument, talked thus : 

"They framed iniquity and universal murder into law 
. . . . Their pirates burned your unarmed commerce 
upon every sea. They carved the bones of your dead 
heroes into ornaments, and drank from goblets made out of 
their skulls. They poisoned your fountains, put mines under 
your soldiers' prisons ; organized bands whose leaders were 
concealed in your homes ; and commissions ordered the torch 
and yellow fever to be carried to your cities, and to your 
women and children. They planned one universal bonfire 
of the North from Lake Ontario to the Missouri," etc., etc. 

The Honorable Henry Wilson, in his *^ History of Recon- 
struction," quotes this and many other similar passionate ap- 
peals, intending them, of course, as fair specimens of the argu- 
ments which brought about there-construction of Federal and 
state Constitutions. 

Early in this session Congress sent to the President a civil 
rights bill conferring many rights, not including suffrage, 
however, upon emancipated slaves. This Mr. Johnson vetoed 
on the ground that it was unconstitutional ; and, accordino- 
to decisions since made by the Supreme Court, it was. The 
veto of this bill greatly aggravated the quarrel, which was 
already open and bitter between the President and Congress. 
It also lost Mr. Johnson the support of Messrs. Dennison^ 



/ 



EECONSTRUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 15 

Harlan and Speed, who resigned from the Cabinet. Mr. 
Stanton, too, became an avowed enemy of the President and 
his policy. Bnt he did not resign. He was advised by Mr. 
Sumner and others to " stick ; ^^ and he remained in the Cabi- 
net as an obstructionist. This was utterly without precedent, 
and serves well to illustrate the height to which party passion 
had risen. Another reason for the break in the Cabinet, in 
all probability, was that Southern Democrats very naturally 
were supporting President Johnson's policy. Senator Wil- 
son's " History of Reconstruction " is full of eloquent in- 
vectives launched in the House and Senate at Andrew Johnson 
because he was supported by Democrats, " rebels,'' " cojiper- 
heads," " traitors," " importers of poisoned clothing," etc., etc. 

The memorable words of Mr. Lincoln in his last annual 
message were : ^' The war will cease on the part of the Govern- 
ment whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who 
began it." But Mr. Lincoln had passed away and his words 
had lost their power. Mr. Blaine, in his " Twenty Years," 
even mentions it as a cause of offence that those, who were in 
arms against the Government when Congress adjourned in 
March, 1865, were, some of them, at the hotels in Washing- 
ton, demanding to be admitted to seats in the Congress which 
met in December. The inflammatory debates in the first 
session of the Thirty-ninth Congress were preliminary to the 
canvass for members of Congress to be elected in the autumn 
of 1866. No factor in those elections proved more potential 
than the rejection by Southern Legislatures of the pending 
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States. The clauses on which its acceptance or rejection 
turned in these assemblies were : Section II., which appor- 
tioned Representatives in Congress upon the basis of the vot- 
ing population ; and Section III., which provided that no per- 
son should hold office under the United States who, having 
taken an oath as a Federal or state officer to support the Consti- 
tution, had subsequently engaged in the war against the Union. 

It was claimed bv the friends of the Amendment to be 
especially unfiir that the South should have representation for 
its freed men and not give them the ballot. The right, how- 
ever, of a State to have representation for all its free inhabit- 



jg WHY THE SOLI-D SOUTH? 

ants, whether voters or not, was secured by the Constitution, 
and 'that instrument even allowed three-fifths representation 
for slaves. New York, Ohio and other states denied the 
ballot to free negroes; some states excluded by property 
qualifications and others by educational tests, yet all enjoyed 
representation for all their peoples. 

The reply to this was that the Constitution ought to be 
amended because the South would now have, if negroes were 
denied the ballot, a larger proportion of non-voters than the 
North. Southern people were slow to see that this was good 
reason for change in the Constitution, especially as they be- 
lieved they were already entitled to representation, and con- 
ceived that they ought to have a voice in proposing as well as 
in the ratification of amendments. Five of the restored states 
had already ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and such 
ratification had been counted valid. If they were states, they 
were certainly entitled to representation. So they claimed. 

It was perhaps imprudent for Southern people at that time 
to undertake to chop logic with their conquerors, or indeed to 
claim any rights at all — as the net results of their insistence 
were, that they were called " impudent claimants '^ by the 
Kepublican Convention at Pittsburgh, and indeed everywhere 
in the Republican press. 

The insuperable objection, however, to the ratification of 
the Fourteenth Amendment was to be found in the clause 
which required the people of the late Confederate States to 
disfranchise their own leaders, to brand with dishonor those 
who had led them in peace and in war. 

The rejection of this amendment at the South greatly 
strengthened the Republican position ; because the North, 
looking at it from a different stand-point, thought the proposi- 
tion a fair one. If any among those who proposed the amend- 
ment intended it should be rejected, it was shrewdly devised ; 
if it was not intended to procure its own rejection, then it was 
clumsily contrived. 

THE FREEDMEN's BUREAU. 

Even before the close of the war public sentiment had 
demanded some provision for the protection of the liberated 



RECONSTKUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 17 

slaves, wlio everywhere came flocking into tne Union lines. 
The result was the establishment by law, March 3d, 1865, of 
a Freedmen's Bureau, which was speedily extended, after 
hostilities had ceased, into all the late Confederate States. 
The law made the agents of this Bureau guardians of 
freedmen, with power to make their contracts, settle their 
disputes with employers and care for them generally. 
The position of Bureau agent was one of power and respon- 
sibility, capable of being used beneficently, and sometimes, 
no doubt, it was ; but these officials were subjected to great 
temptation. 

Many people, who believed that the newly emancipated 
slave needed a guardian to take care of him, believed also 
that, if he only had the ballot, he could take care of himself 
and the country, too. In fact, the sentiment in favor of uni- 
versal suffrage was already strong, even in the spring of 1865 ; 
and it was natural for every Bureau agent, who might have 
a turn for politics, to conclude that, with the Bureau^s help, 
Mr. Stevens and his friends might eventually succeed in giving 
the negro the ballot. The Bureau agent was ^^ the next friend " 
of the negro. With negro suffrage, this official's fortune was 
made. Without it, of course, this stranger had no hope of 
office in the South. It was not therefore to his interest, if 
he had political aspirations, that there should be peace between 
the races. 

From conscientious men, connected with this Bureau, 
General Grant obtained the information upon which he based 
the opinion, given to the President in the report already 
quoted from, that ''Hhe belief widely spread among the freed- 
men of the Southern states that the lands of their former owners 
will, at least in part, be divided among them, has come from the 
agents of this Bureau. This belief is seriously interfering 
with the willingness of the freedmen to make contracts for the 
coming yearj^ And he further said : ^' Many, perhaps the 
majority, of the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau advise the 
freedmen that by their own industry they must expect to live. 
... In some instances, I am sorry to say, the freedman^s 
mind does not seem to be disabused of the idea that he has a 
right to live without care or provision for the future. The 
2 



13 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

effect of the belief in the division of lands is idleness and accumu- 
iation in camps, towns and cities!^ 

The first lesson in the horn-book of liberty for the freed- 
man obviously was, that in the sweat of his face he must earn 
his bread — a law unto all men since the days of Adam. It is 
a sad commentary on the workings of the Bureau, that the 
best thing General Grant could say of its agents w^as, that 
" many, and perhaps a majority of them," did so advise. If 
these officials were really responsible, as General Grant be- 
lieved, for the demoralized labor condition at the South — and 
their power over the freedmen is beyond all question — then 
they were, in fact, organizing chaos where their mission was 
peace and good order. 

Nearly every one of these agents, who remained South 
after reconstruction, was a candidate for office ; and many 
actually became Governors, Judges, Legislators, Congressmen, 
Postmasters, Revenue officers, etc. 

Such a situation as confronted Southern Legislatures in the 
fall and early winter of 1865 was never before witnessed 
in America. Prior to 1861 the laws to compel people to in- 
dustrious habits were not generally so stringent in the South as 
in the North. This resulted partly from slavery and partly 
from the easy conditions of life in a mild climate. There 
were no laws that met the new situation. New and stringent 
statutes were passed to prevent vagrancy and idleness. There 
is not space here to discuss these laws. They will be treated 
of in a subsequent chapter and compared with statutes then in 
force in Northern states. Suffice it to say now, they did not 
merit the odium visited upon them by many honest Northern 
voters, who, not understanding the situation, were led to be- 
lieve them nothing; short of an effi)rt to re-enslave the ne^ro, 
when their purpose was sun ply to counteract the teachings 
that had demoralized the freedman and compel him to in- 
dustrious habits. 

THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. 

The passage of the concurrent resolution in December 
1865, to inquire into the condition of the late Confederate 



KECONSTRUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 19 

States meant open, hospitality ^o the Presidential plan. Hav- 
ing declared war, the dominant party of course exercised 
great care in selecting members to serve on the committee 
which was to make this inquiry. Mr. Blaine (Vol. II., p. 
127) says : 

" It was foreseen that in an especial degree the fortunes of 
the Republican party would be in the keeping of the fifteen 
men who might be chosen.'^ Speaker Colfax and the ap- 
pointing power in the Senate put on the committee twelve 
Republicans and only three Democrats, one from- the Senate 
and two from the House. 

The field from which testimony was to be drawn was the unre- 
presented South. On the sub-committee which took testimony 
as to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- 
bama, Mississippi and Arkansas, there was not a Democrat to 
call or to question a witness. The only hope of fair play lay 
in the magnanimity or sense of justice of men who had already 
voted to refuse admission to the Southern members and who 
were placed upon the committee with the expectation, as Mr. 
Blaine has indicated, that they would take care of the Re- 
publican party. There is not space here to discuss the 
evidence of the witnesses, who chose or were chosen to come 
before these gentlemen. It consists of hundreds of pages of 
speculative testimony, hearsay, etc. 

The crimes committed, in the most peaceful times, within 
eighteen consecutive mouths, among any population of eight 
millions, would, if industriously arrayed, make a fearful 
record. To make that arraignment of the late Confederate 
States was the task to which this able committee addressed 
itself in 1866. 

The situation in these states w^as peculiar. AVhen the sur- 
viving soldiers returned from the field, around their desolated 
homes they found four millions of slaves suddenly man- 
umitted. The returning soldiers were themselves more or less 
affected by that demoralization which is an unfailing con- 
sequence of protracted war. The negroes were demoralized 
by their newly-found freedom. They turned, for the most 
part, a deaf ear to the advice of their old masters and listened 
with avidity to the tales that were bruited about, said to have 



20 



WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 



come from the stranger friends who had freed them, to the 
effect that the lands of their rebel masters were to be confis- 
cated and divided among them. It is impossible that, under 
such circumstances, however earnestly all good citizens might 
strive for the general good, there should not have been fric- 
tion between the races. Yet, notwithstanding the extraordi- 
nary and unprecedented conditions there was, to General 
Grant, nothing, as his report already quoted shows, in the 
situation there in the fall of 1865, that was not creditable to 
the masses of the people. General Grant was not in politics. 
The gentlemen of the committee of fifteen were ; and a few 
words as to the treatment of one state, as a sample, will suffice 
to show that the methods employed were such as to allow no 
rational expectation of reaching correct conclusions. As to 
the condition in Alabama only five persons, who claimed to be 
citizens, were examined. These were all Republican politi- 
cians. The testimony of each was bitterly partisan ; under 
the government of the state as it then existed, no one of these 
witnesses could hope for official preferment. In his testi- 
mony each was striving for the overthrow of his existing state 
government, and the setting up of some such institutions as 
followed under Congressional reconstruction. AVhen this re- 
construction had finally taken place, the first of these five 
witnesses became Governor of his state ; the second became 
a Senator in Congress ; the third secured a life position in 
one of the departments at Washington ; the fourth became a 
circuit judge in Alabama, and the fifth a judge of the Supreme 
Court of the District of Columbia — all as Republicans. 
There was no Democrat in the sub committee, which examined 
these gentlemen, to cross-examine them ; and not a citizen of 
Alabama w^as called before that sub-committee to answer or 
explain their evidence. Of the report of this committee, 
based upon evidence taken by such methods, Mr. Blaine per- 
mits himself to say (Vol. II. p. 9) : "That report is to be 
taken as an absolutely truthful picture of the Southern states 
at that time." 

The first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress now came to 
a close. Besides the passage, over the President's objections, 
of a still more radical Freedmen's Bureau Bill than that de- 



EECONSTRUCTION AT WASmNGTON. 21 

feated by his first veto, it had accomplished little else than to 
drive most of the moderate Republicans into the ranks of the 
extremists. On adjournment, members went into the can- 
vass at home. The late Confederate States were held out of 
the Union ; and their status was to be determined by elec- 
tions at the North. The rejection of the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment, the report of the joint committee of fifteen, the testi- 
mony taken by that committee, the evidence furnished by 
agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, the vetoes and the alleged 
treachery to the Republican party of Andrew Johnson — these 
were the material of the canvass. Mr. Johnson had adhered 
rigidly to Abraham Lincoln's theory of restoration. That 
theory the Republicans now were assailing and Johnson was 
on trial as an apostate. 

CONGRESS, 1866-67. 

The Republicans came back to the last session of the 
Thirty-ninth Congress, which began on the first Monday in 
December, 1866, exulting in a great victory. Never since the 
beginning of the Government had there been such a campaign 
during an ^' off year." Though no President was to be 
elected, four national conventions had been held ; the air was 
filled with inflammatory speeches and the dying embeis of 
the passions engendered by the civil war were fanned into 
flames. 

The result of the election was a majority, in the Fortieth 
Congress, of 31 for the Republicans in the Senate and 94 in 
the House. The Republicans were greatly elated. Presi- 
dent Johnson, who was still ready with his vetoes, was the 
only obstacle in their path. It was proposed to remove him 
by impeachment. As ])ut by Mr. Shuckers, himself a Re- 
publican, in his life of C. J. Chase, (p. 547) the Republican 
leaders at this juncture "felt the vast importance of the 
Presidential patronage; many of them felt, too, that according 
to the maxim that to the victors belong the spoils, the Re- 
publican party was rightfully entitled to the Federal patron- 
age ; and they determined to get possession of it. There was 
but one method and that was by impeachment and removal 
of the President/^ 



22 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

On the 7th of January, 1867, Mr. Loan offered a resohi- 
tion that, " for the purpose of securing the fruits of the 
victories gained," impeachment of the President was neces- 
sary. On the same day Mr. Kelso, also '* for the purpose of 
securing the fruits of the victories gained," introduced im- 
peachment resolutions. Then Mr. Ashley moved and carried 
resolutions for the appo ntment of a committee to inquire for 
grounds on which the President could be impeached. No 
proof was offered; the committee was to hunt for proof. Tlie 
President's '^ bank account was examined. His private con- 
duct in Washington was carefully scrutinized. Men were 
employed to investigate his pul)lic and private character in 
Tennessee. But nothing was found to his discredit." 
(McCulloch, p. 394.) Notwithstanding the futility of this 
effort, in one form or another, the impeachment program nie 
survived until the next winter, when President Johnson fur- 
nished an excuse in the removal of Mr. Stanton from the 
Secretaryship of War, and the impeachment proceedings 
were theu pressed to a conclusion." 

Id is now well understood that no legal grounds for the 
impeachment existed ; and even at that day, in the height of 
party passion, there were seven Pepublican Senators, the 
exact number necessary to save the President who, in spite of 
party pressure, voted " not guilty " at the trial. 

The excitement prevailing in the country at large, at the 
time of the impeachment, may be judged of by the following 
editorial paragraph from the Harrisburg (Penna.) State 
Guard : " Just as sure as we believe the blood of xA.braham 
Lincoln is on the soul of Andrew Johnson, so certain are we 
that he contemplates drenching the country once more in the 
blood of civil war." 

The effort to impeach the President was not allowed to 
delay the programme of Congress. Universal suffrage hav- 
ing been decided son, obviously the first step was, in the 
language of Mr. Henry Wilson, in his " History of Reconstruc- 
tion," (p. 267) " the extension of suffrage to the colored race in 
the District of Columbia, both as a right and an example.'^ 
The bill to this effect was before the Senate. Mr. Buckalew, 
of Pennsylvania, presented thus the grounds upon which 



KECONSTEUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 23 

Democrats opposed it : '^ Our ancestors placed suffrage upon 
the broad common-sense principle that it should be lodged in 
and exercised by those who could use it most wisely and most 
safely and most efficiently to serve the ends for which Govern- 
ment was instituted/' and ^^not upon any abstract or transcend- 
ental notion of human rights which ignored the existing facts of 
social life." And, he said ; " I shall not vote to degrade 
suffrage. I shall not vote to pollute and corrupt the founda- 
tion of political power in this country, either in my own state 
or in any other." The debate took a wide range. It was 
understood that the late Confederate States were to share the 
fate of the District. One question was whether the right of 
suffrao:e should be confined to those who could read and write. 
Mr. Sumner stated his position thus : " Now to my mind 
nothing is clearer than the absolute necessity of suffrage for 
all colored persons in the disorganized states. It will not be 
enough if you give it to those who read and write ; you will 
not, in this way, acquire the voting force which you need 
there for the protection of Unionists, whether white or black. 
Yoit will not secure the new allies, who are essential to the 
national cause.'' 

The bill granting suffrage passed, without qualification. 
On January 7, 1867, the President returned it with his objec- 
tions. Mr. Sherman, discussing the veto, said : " The 
President says this is not the place for this experiment. I 
say it is the place of all others, because, if the negroes here 
abuse the political power we give them, we can withdraw the 
privilege at any moment." 

It is curious, glancing forward a few years, to see the re- 
sult of this initial experiment. In 1871, while the Republi- 
cans were still in power in both Houses, a law was passed 
allowing the District of Columbia to elect its own Legislature 
and Governor. The newly enfranchised voters, who were 
given the ballot " both as a right and as an example," had 
thus full opportunity to show their capacity. What was 
occurring, at that time, in the Southern states was always a 
matter of partisan dispute, but the noon-day sun was shining 
full upon the Capital District, and the whole country saw 
that the political power conferred was being '^ abused." As 



24 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Senator Sherman had indicated it might be, it was, in 1874, 
promptly '' withdrawn " by a law which took away, not only 
from the black man, but also from the white man, the right, 
which the latter had long enjoyed, of voting in the District of 
Columbia. The new law provided that the District should 
be governed by three commissioners appointed by the Presi- 
dent. There has not been a ballot cast in the District since 
1874. 

Congress had the right to enact universal suffrage in the 
District of Columbia. It has exclusive jurisdiction there, 
under the Constitution ; but that instrument might have been 
searched in vain, in 1867, for any power over the elective 
franchise in the states. Mr. Justice Nelson, of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, on the circuit had decided, in 
the case of Eyjan, that South Carolina was entitled, after her 
civil government had been restored under the Presidential 
plan, to all the rights of a state in the Union. In a carefully 
prepared opinion he said : ^* A new Constitution had been 
formed, a Governor and Legislature elected under it and the 
state placed iu the full enjoyment of all her constitutional 
rights and privileges." What vyas true of South Carolina 
was true of others of the late Confederate States, and if these 
states were states, as Mr. Justice Nelson held, then Congress 
had no power over suffrage within their borders. 

But this view of the Constitution did not suit the majority 
in Congress. The victory at the polls in the fall had put 
them abreast with Mr. Stevens, and now, in the winter of 
'66-67, they claimed full power over the late insurrectionary 
states, on the ground that it was for Congress to decide when 
the war had ceased ; and they decided it was not yet over, 
Mr. Fessenden put it thus : "■ Is there anything more cer- 
tain than that the conqueror has a right, if he chooses, to 
change the form of government, that he has the right to 
punish?" etc. On the 15th of March, 1867, Senator Howard, 
of ]\Iichigan, said : '' They took their own time to get out of 
the Union ; let them take their own time to return. They 
took their own time to initiate the war ; we took our time to 
close the war." Mr. Maynard, of Tennessee, seemed to think 
it necessary to show that the continued existence of the war 



RECONSTRUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 25 

was o^fact, really existing, and not a fiction assumed for juris- 
dictional purposes, and he said, on the floor of the House, in 
February, '67 : ^' It is not quite accurate to say that we are 
at peace ; that there is no war. What peace is it? The 
peace of Vesuvius at rest, the peace of the slumbering 
volcano ; the fires banked up, not extinguished ; the strength 
of the combatants exhausted, but their wrath not appeased ; no 
longer able to continue the conflict, but awaiting a favorable 
opportunity to renew it." 

The facts were that for eighteen months prior to Mr. May- 
nard's speech there had not been, nor has there been, during 
the nearly a quarter of a century elapsing since, any offer or 
thought; in any of the late Confederate States, of resistance 
to the General Government ; unless one may denominate such 
the occasional shooting, by a moonshiner, of a revenue 
officer; and this has occurred, oftener than elsewhere, in the 
Republican District of East Tennessee, represented, the 
writer believes, by Mr. Maynard when he claimed to be 
standing on a volcano. 

Nevertheless Congress solemnly adjudged, for itself, that 
the war was not over; and so, on the 2d of March, 1867, in 
order, as was recited in the preamble, ^^to protect life and 
property in the rebel states of Virginia, North Carolina, 
Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louis- 
iana, Florida, Texas and Arkansas," '* until loyal and 
republican state governments can be legally established," it 
was enacted that those states should be divided into military 
districts and placed under military rule. On the 23d, of 
March, 1867, a supplemental act was passed, completing the 
plan of reconstruction.* These acts annulled the state govern- 
ments then in operation ; enfranchised the negro ; dis- 
franchised all who had participated in the war against the 
Union, whether pardoned or not, if they had previously held 
any executive, legislative or judicial office under the state or 
General Government; provided for the calling of conven- 
tions, the framing and adopting of state constitutions, the 
election of state officers; and, in fact, pointed out all the ma- 
chinery necessary to put into operation new governments upon 

* See these acts in full. (Appendix A and B.) 



2Q WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the ruins of the old. Until the several states should be ad- 
mitted under these new governments into the Union, the 
military officers in command were to have absolute power 
over life, liberty and property ; with the sole exception, that 
death sentences were subject to approval by the President. 
Several ineffectual efforts were made to get the question of the 
validity of these laws before the Supreme Court of the United 
States. At last the case of McCardle from Mississippi 
seemed to present it fairly. McCardle, basing his denial of 
the power of a military court to punish him on the ground 
that the reconstruction laws conferring that authority were 
unconstitutional, appealed to the Supreme Court. That Court 
denied a motion to dismiss the appeal. The case was then 
argued on its own merits. The argument was concluded on 
the 9th March, 1868 ; and the Court took the case under ad- 
visement. While it was being so held, to prevent a decision 
of the question, a bill was rushed through both Houses and 
finally passed, March 27th, 1867, over the President's veto, 
depriving the Court of jurisdiction over such appeals. This 
act, of course, implied the fear that the decision would be ad- 
verse to the validity of the laws, as a favorable decision would 
have been of immense value to the Republican party. Con- 
sidering all the circumstances, it is indeed natural to conclude 
that this hasty action was based upon positive information 
that the decision, if made, would declare null and void the 
reconstruction laws. 

After the passage of these laws and the muzzling of the 
Supreme Court, the careful observer of existing conditions, 
looking at the many adventurers who had followed in the 
wake of the army, at the numerous employees of the Freed- 
men's Bureau, so long in training for their now fast ripening 
opportunities, might easily have predicted that the legislation 
of Congress would inevitably result in what Mr. Lincoln had 
feared and deplored as far back as 1862. 

Just before the election for members of Congress, which 
had been ordered by Governor Shepley in Louisiana, President 
Lincoln addressed him a letter, November 21st, 1862, saying 
that only " respectable citizens of Louisiana," voted for by 
" other respectable citizens," were wanted as representatives 



RECONSTRUCTION AT WASHINGTON. 27 

in Washington. "To send/' he says, ^'a parcel of Northern 
men here, elected, as would be understood, and perhaps justly 
so, at the point of the bayonet, would be disgraceful and 
outrageous.'' 

But party spirit had now gotten far away from that lofty 
plane on which Lincoln, the statesman, had stood. 

Even Mr, Garfield, usually generous and conservative, had 
become so much excited as to say, in the discussion of these 
measures on the 18th February, 1867, and seemingly- with 
exultation: *'This bill sets out by laying its hands on the 
rebel governments and taking the very breath of life out of 
them ; in the next place it puts the bayonet at the breast of 
every rebel in the South ; in the next place it leaves in the 
hands of Congress utterly and absolutely the work of recon- 
struction." In other words, Mr. Garfield meant that if the 
results were not satisfactory. Congress might, at will, modify 
or change its plans. 

But happily, as it no doubt appeared, there was only need 
for a few more changes in the law. 

The reconstructors builded even better than they knew. 
The results exceeded even the sanguine prediction of Mr. 
Henry Wilson, who said, March 15, 1867, on the floor of 
the Senate : " With the exercise of practical judgment, with 
good organization, scattering the great truth and the facts 
before the people, a majority of these states will, within a 
twelvemonth, send here Senators and Representatives, who 
think as we think, speak as we speak and vote as we vote, 
and will give their electoral votes for whoever we nominate 
for President in 1868." 

In a little more than a "twelvemonth " from the date of 
Mr. W^ilson's prediction — by the close of June 1868 — eight 
of the eleven Confederate states were rej)resented in both 
branches of Congress. Of these Representatives all but two 
were Republican, and among the sixteen Senators there was 
not a sino:le Democrat. 

About one-half of these Senators and Representatives were 
Northern men, elected when, as Mr. Garfield said, "the 
bayonet was at the breast of every rebel in the South," — a 
thing Mr. Lincoln had characterized as " disgraceful and out- 
rageous." 



28 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The " fruits of the war'' were being gathered. 

Nothing remained but to perpetuate existing conditions. 

Not only did these newly set up states ratify with alacrity 
the 14th Amendment, but by the 30th of March, 1870, with 
their assistance, the 15th Amendment was also declared part 
of the Constitution. Suffrage had been granted to the negro 
in the Southern states by Congress. This Amendment pro- 
vided that ^' the right to vote should not be abridged by the 
United States, or by any state on account of race, color or 
previous condition of servitude.'' 

The net results of these reconstruction measures were that, in 
the 41st Congress, beginning March 5, 1871, when the twelve 
Southern states, including West Virginia, had all been 
gathered into the fold, they were represented by 22 Repub- 
licans and 2 Democratic Senators and 48 Republican and 13 
Democratic Representatives. 

The National Republican party had, in the language of 
Mr. Sumner, secured the " new allies '' it needed in the South. 

What these new allies accomplished in the several Southern 
states will appear in the subsequent chapters of this book. 

Hilary A. Herbert 



CHAPTER II. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 

"Those men in the South, who are seeking to establish a black man's 
party, are the enemies of this principle of equality ; and if they carry out 
their plans they will strike Republicanism a blow far heavier than the 
Democracy can deal." — Horace Greeley in the Tribune, summer of 
1867. 

I. HOW THE REPUBLICANS OBTAINED CONTROL. 

IT is difficult to convey any proper idea of the wretchedness 
that prevailed in Alabama at the close of our Civil War. 
Thousands who were totally unaccustomed to labor found 
themselves in extreme poverty, and in many cases father, 
husband, brother or son — the last and only hope — was sleep- 
ing in a soldier's grave. The State had lost of her citizens by 
the war, including the disabled, 25,227, more than 20 per 
cent, of those who could now have been counted upon as 
bread-winners. The credit system had been universal, but 
now all credit was gone ; provision crops had gone to feed 
both Confederate and Federal armies ; plow stock had most 
of it been destroyed or carried away ; negro laborers were de- 
moralized, and flocked into towns and camps around Freed- 
men's Bureau Agencies ; and, to fill the cup to the brim, a 
severe drought came with its afflictions, so that the crops of 
corn and small grain throughout the State in 1865 were not 
more than one-fifth the usual amount.* 

These results of the Civil War, the reader can readily see, 
had no tendency to obliterate the political feuds that had 
divided the people of the State in days gone by. 

On the contrary, there was a manifest disposition to seek, 
in the history of the past, for the causes which had led to the 
evils of the present. Politics in Alabama had always been 
more or less exciting. It had long been customary for the 

* Governor Parsons' message to Legislature, November, 1865. 

29 



30 



WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 



champions of opposing parties to meet in joint debate, and dis- 
cussion had greatly intensified political differences. Whigs 
and Democrats, Union men and Secessionists, had all been 
thoroughly in earnest. Even the terrible four years^ war had 
not brought them together; and in the summer of 1865 it 
did not seem possible that time could ever set in motion any 
forces powerful enough to compact all these peo})le into one 
party. Certainly the presence at that time of Union soldiers 
in the State had no such tendency. It was expected that, as 
a matter of course, the soldiers would be removed when civil 
authority should be restored, and the relations between them 
and the ex-Confederates were very kindly. 

But there was little sympathy between the citizen and the 
agent of the Freedmen's Bureau. This Bureau agent, for the 
most part, had not been a soldier; his past experience, his 
present avocation, and his aspirations for the future, all dif- 
fered him from the veteran, who had learned on the battle- 
field to respect his foe, and who found, in his own approving 
conscience and the gratitude of his countrymen, sufficient 
reward for the services he had rendered. 

Senator Fessenden, of Maine, very accurately described the 
fnture personnel of the Freedmen's Bureau, when he said, in 
his speech opposing the bill for its establishment : " You 
give these creatures to the kind protection of broken-down 
politicians, and adventurers, and decayed ministers of the 
Gospel, and make them overseers to make fortunes out of the 
poor creatures." The outline portrait he drew was artistic, 
but it was not given the great Senator then to see all the op- 
portunities that were to open before these future friends of 
the colored man. They w^re not to be content w^ith the petty 
business of robbing the negro ; they were to become states- 
men, and traffic and barter away the credit of States. Never 
were men more prompt to realize a new situation. Enfran- 
chisement of blacks and disfranchisement of white leaders 
had already been mooted in Congress, even before the passage 
of the bill establishing the Bureau. The consummation of 
such a scheme would affoi'd vast opportunities to those who 
could control the negro vote ; and Bureau employees began 
at once to establish themselves in the confidence of the colored 



KECONSTEUCTION IN ALABAMA. 31 

man. The phrase flashed like lightning through the region 
of the late Confederacy that at Freedmeu's Bureau agencies 
" the bottom rail was on top." The conditions which this 
expression implied exasperated the whites, in like ratio as the 
negroes were delighted. 

The faith of the freedraan in the guardian the Government 
hud })laced over him soon became unbounded, and, if these 
guardians had so desired, everj able-bodied freedman in Ala- 
bama would, in the fall of 1865, if not already provided for, 
have been hunting a home and wages for the coming year. 
Instead of this they were generally found here, as Gen, Grant 
reported on the 11th of December, 1865, they were elsewhere, 
refusing to make contracts and waiting for Government aid. 
There had never been any system of statutes compelling to 
industrious habits in Alabama, as there was in the New 
England states. What could the Legislature do but pass 
laws to prevent idleness and vagrancy ? 

On the 21st day of June, 1865, President Johnston had 
issued his proclamation for the restoration of civil authority 
in Alabama, appointing I^ewis E. Parsons, a Union man. 
Provisional Governor. A state convention had been called, 
had met, abrogated the ordinance of secession and repudiated 
the Confederate debt. Then a Legislature had been elected. 
It was now in session and had ratified the thirteenth amend- 
ment, abolishing slavery, with practical unanimity. It then 
addressed itself to the task of providing laws to remedy the 
labor situation. In the Congressional canvass at the North, 
during the next fall, these Alabama laws, with others of like 
character, passed by states in like condition, were made to 
figure as ''new slave codes in the South." Mr. Blaine 
devotes many pages of his "Twenty Years in Congress" 
to these statutes, denouncing them unreservedly, without 
so much as noticing the conditions which called them 
forth. His effort seems to be to embalm into enduring 
history the political literature of that exciting period. 
The limits of this article permit only a brief reply to 
his strictures. He says (p. 94, Vol. 11): ''In Alabama, 
which might serve as an example for the other rebellious states^ 
'stubborn and refractory servants^ and 'servants who loiter 



oo WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

away their time' were declared by tlie law to be 'vagrants' 
and might be brought before a Justice of the Peace and fined 
fifty doTlars, and in default of payment they might be hired 
out on three days' notice by public outcry for the pc^riod of 
six months. No fair man can fail to see that the whole eifect 
and presumably the direct intent of this law was to reduce 
the helpless negro to slavery for half the year," etc. 

This statute is not widely different from the following law 
of Rhode Island, Rev. of 1872, p. 243: '^f any servant 
or apprentice shall depart from the service of his master or 
otherwise neglect his duty " he shall be arrested on oath to be 
made " in writing by his master," and the officer may commit 
him to the state work-house of correction," etc. Certainly 
" otherivise neglect his duty " is as broad as " loiter away his 
time," and includes " stubborn and refractory " and much 
more — and the punishment in both cases is hard labor ; differ- 
ing in kind because there were no work-houses in Alabama 
as in Rhode Island. 

After further comment on the statute above quoted, Mr. 
Blaine assails the apprentice law, which is not materially 
different from the apprentice laws of the New England states, 
except in one parti-cular, to which he calls especial attention, 
thus : '' Then follows a suggestive proviso that if said minor 
be the child of a freedman, as if any other class were really 
referred to, the former owner of said minor shall have the 
preference." This was really a humane provision. The old 
master was far more apt to be kind to a child, who had been 
born his, than a stranger would be. 

General Schofield, who had been much in the South, recog- 
nized this fact when he promulgated orders, May 15th, 1865, 
constituting a code for the Government of Freedmen in North 
Carolina. The second section of the order was : " The former 
masters are constituted the guardians of minors in the absence 
of parents or other near relatives capable of supporting them.'' 
Mr. Blaine continues his comments. *' To tighten the grasp 
of ownership on the minor, who was now styled an apprentice, 
it was enacted, in almost the precise phrase of the old slave 
code, that whoever shall entice said apprentice from his master 
or mistress and furnish food or clothing to him or her, without 



KECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 33 

said coDsent, shall be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred 
dollars." 

Compare Statutes of Connecticut, Eev. of 1866, p. 320 : 
^* If any person shall entice such minor (apprentice) from the 
service or employment of such master . . .or shall aid or 
abet therein" he shall be fined "a sum not exceeding one 
hundred dollars or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding six 
months.^' 

The penalty here might reach six months^ imprisonment. 
The same offense in Alabama could only be punished by fine. 

Pages 95-6, Mr. Blaine says : " The ingenuity of Alabama 
Legislators in contriving schemes to re-enslave the negroes 
was not exhausted by the odious and comprehensive statutes 
already cited. They passed an act to incorporate the city of 
Mobile, substituting a new charter for the old one. The city 
had suffered much from the suspension and decay of trade 
during the war, and it was in need of labor to make repairs 
to streets, culverts, sewers, wharves and all other public prop- 
erty. By the new charter Aldermen and Common Council 
were empowered to cause all vagrants ... all such as 
have no visible means of support ... all who can show 
no reasonable source of employment or business in the city 
. . . all those who have no fixed residence or cannot 
give a good account of themselv^es . . . or are loitering in 
and about tippling-houses, to give security for their behavior 
for a reasonable time and to indemnify the City against any 
charge for their support and in case of their inability or re- 
fusal to give such security, to cause them to be confined to 
labor for a limited time, not exceeding six mouths, which 
labor shall be designated by the Mayor, Aldermen and Com- 
mon Council for the benefit of the City. It will be observed, 
by the least intelligent, that the charge made in this City Or- 
dinance was in substance the poverty of the classes quoted, a 
poverty which was of course the inevitable result of slavery/' 
etc., etc. 

Before commenting on this extract, let it be noted that 
here is no charge of any abuses under the law. All this de- 
nunciation is based on the legislation^ as found in the books. 

Now Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connec- 

3 



34 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ticut were never situated as Alabama was in 1865, never had 
Government Bureau Agents demoralizing labor in their 
midst, and yet we find in General Statutes Rhode Island, 1872, 
p. 555 : " Every sturdy beggar who shall apply for alms or 
solicit charity ; every person wandering abroad and lodging 
in Station-houses and not giving a good account of himself 
. . . every vagrant or disorderly person shall be im- 
prisoned not less than six months nor more than three years/^ 

In General Statutes No. 5, of 1864, p. 24, of Vermont, acts 
similar to those described in the Rhode Island and Alabama 
statutes are made punishable by imprisonment not exceeding 
six months, and any citizen " may of his own authority and 
without process arrest '^ and convey to the magistrate, etc. 

If he could have found in the Alabama law any authority 
for a private citizen to " arrest without process,'^ what term 
woidd have been too harsh for Mr. Blaine to use ? 

In General Statutes of Connecticut, Rev. of 1865, p. 109, 
is found a law that declares vagrants, " all persons who travel 
from place to place without lawful occasion ... all 
persons camping on the public highway without consent,^' 
etc. 

By public Statutes Massachusetts, 1882, p. 1170, persons 
^^ roving about from place to place and begging or living with- 
out labor ^^ are declared tramps and made subject to imprison- 
ment in the house of correction '^ not less than six months nor 
more than two years," while in Alabama the punishment for 
similar offences could not exceed six months. 

Mr. Blaine seems not to have known, when he was making 
these attacks on the legislation of a distant state, that similar 
and even harsher laws were in force all around him. Indeed, 
tlie laws of his own state were, as they are now, more rigor- 
ous than those he was assailing. The second volume of 
"Twenty Years in Congress " was published in 1882. At 
that very time the law of Maine (see CliapterXXI.) provided 
for committing to the work-house "all poor, indigent persons 
maintained by or receiving alms from the town, all able- 
bodied persons, not having estate or means otherwise to main- 
tain themselves who refuse or neglect to ivork/' etc., etc. . . . 
and after being thus committed to the work-house, " for no 



EECONSTKUCTION IN ALABAMA. 35 

crime but poverty," the unfortunate man, by Section 8 of the 
same chapter, '' for idleness, obstinacy or disorderly con- 
duct," is subject to be punished "as provided by the lawful 
regulations of the House." 

But that is not all. We might paraphrase Mr. Blaine and 
say : " The ingenuity of Maine legislators in contriving 
schemes to circumvent the unfortunate poor was not ex- 
hausted by the odious and comprehensive statutes already 
cited." They provided, Section 17, p. 925, Rev. Statutes, 1883, 
that " whoever gees about from town to town, or from place 
to j^lace in any town, asking for food or shelter, or begging 
. . . shall be deemed a tramp and be imprisoned at hard 
labor in the state prison for not more than fifteen months." 
By this law the laborer locked out of a mill by act of the 
owner is made a tramp, if, while going from town to town in 
quest of w^ork, he begs bread to subsist life or even asks for 
shelter. Section 18, on the same page, then declares : " If 
a tramp enters a dwelling house, or kindles a fire in the high- 
way or on the land of another, without the consent of the 
owner or occupant ... he shall be punished at hard labor 
in the state prison for not more than two years." The poor 
man may starve and freeze, but must not beg. If he does he 
is punishable, in Maine, to the extent of two years in the 
state prisou for his very first offense. The limit of the Ala- 
bama law was six months. 

As a sort of capping to the sheaf he has been gathering in 
the field of Alabama legislation, Mr. Blaine crowns his fore- 
going criticisms with this remark : ^' The fact w'ill not escape 
attention that in th^se enactments the words ' master,' * mis- 
tress' and 'servant' are used." This in Alabama legislation 
appears to be the very climax of iniquity ; and yet, in the 
Revised Statutes of Maine, 1883, p. 256, under the heading 
*' Masters, Apprentices and Servants," occur the words 
" master " and '^ mistress," and further on the words " mas- 
ters" and ''mistresses." The simple truth is that these 
])hrases are so imbedded in the terminology of the law that 
they probably occur in the statutes of every state in the 
Union. 

Prof. Alexander Johnson, in his article on Reconstruction 



36 



WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 



(Cyc. Pol. Sci., Vol. III. p. 546), says, the controlling reason 
of the Republican successes in the Congressional elections at 
the North in 1866 ''will be found in the constant irritation 
kept up by the general cast of the legislation in regard to 
freedmen by the reconstructed legislatures in 1865-66,'^ etc., 
etc. If this be true, then it is submitted that the sober judg- 
ment of this day must be, that in 1866 the Northern mind 
was so much excited that it did not judge the situation fairly. 
Mr. Blaine has commented on the Alabama legislation taken 
"as an example" of other legislation in the South. Certainly 
no one can present the partisan view of that situation more 
strongly than he has done. 

The writer of this article would never think of citing these 
New England Statutes for the purpose of basing on them a 
serious attack on the legislation of those states. Law\s aimed 
at idleness, it is well known, are never so harsh in their 
actual operation as the strict letter of the statute would seem 
to indicate. 

But when the author of a book, as important as that of 
Mr. Blaine, ignores this fact and bases a studied assault solely 
on the language of statutes, it is but just to reply by quota- 
tions from statutes. Of the comparison the reader can judge 
for himself. 

How unfortunate it is that there is so much political dyna- 
mite in the negro question ! When will the time come when 
the voter will sternly demand that politicians shall apj)eal to 
reason and not to passion ? 

* The Spring of 1866 was now come. The first of January 
had passed without the division of land, which had been ex- 
pected to take place then, and the colored people were begin- 
ning to see the necessity of exerting themselves ; but negro 
labor was still much demoralized. As for the whites, even 
those who had been most hopeful were beginning to despond. 
They had done all they could for the restoration of honest, 
economical government to the State. But Congress had re- 
fused to allow them representation, and the Freedmen's Bu- 
reau and the army were still exercising supreme power in the 
state, while the battle for negro suffrage was being fought out 
in Washington and before the people of the North. Could 



EECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 37 ' 

good government at the South be expected if the ballot should 
be given to the newly enfranchised black man ? Few Ala- 
bam iaus thought so. 

Republican government must be founded on virtue, intelli- 
gence and patriotism. Of all the races in the world the negro 
alone had been able to hold, always, a whole continent locked 
in the impenetrable mysteries of barbarism. First Egyptian, 
and then Moorish civilization had assailed Africa from the 
North ; then Asiatics from the East and Europeans from the 
West had essayed to penetrate it — but Africa was still the dark 
continent. This was the fight the African had fought at 
home against civilization. Brought from his native land, 
freed from native influences, as a slave he had greatly devel- 
oped — he was kindly disposed, docile and faithful. He had 
cared for the women and children of the South, even when 
battles were being fought in which his freedom was at stake. 
For this the Southern people felt deeply grateful, yet they 
could not think that his training as a slave had fitted him to 
take part in the government of a state. 

Liberia, the free state, a creature of generous charities, 
though under the continued sustentation of the most intelli- 
gent philanthropists, was nevertheless a failure. Hayti and 
San Domingo were monumental warnings. The celebrated 
English historian James Anthony Froude, in his book '' The 
English in the West Indies, '^ p. 88, says : *' In Hayti, the 
black republic allows no white man to hold land in freehold.'' 
And he adds, as the result of a thorough study of the subject, 
^' the blacks elsewhere with the same opportunities will de- 
velop the same aspirations." 

There seemed in 1866 to be no ground to hope that an ex- 
periment of negro suffrage in the South would prove more 
successful than elsewhere. Nevertheless there were Alaba- 
mians who favored it. Some of these were politicians, con- 
tent to take office at any price to the country ; but others of 
them were good citizens, who had become so embittered by the 
w^ar, that they were willing to accept the aid even of their 
former slaves in their fight against the Secessionists ; though 
there was comino; a crisis that was to silence even a hatred 
like this. 



38 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

The people of Alabama felt that they were vitally interested 
ill the question of universal suifrage, and that they ought to 
have a voice in its settlement. Congress, however, had 
decided that they should not, and seemed now determined to 
put it upon them. This produced, necessarily, more or less of 
exasperation among the whites ; and caused, at the same time, 
a spirit of exultation on the part of the blacks. Indeed, the 
colored people were already beginning to assume a tone of de- 
fiance, encouraged, as they were, not only by the refusal of 
Congress to recognize the state government, but also by 
Freed men's Bureau agents, who had the army and all the 
power of the United States behind them. Of course, it was 
impossible that every citizen in the state could, in his dealings 
with either whites or blacks, be always circumspect, prudent 
and just. In spite of every influence that could be brought 
to bear by thoughtful men, who comprehended the situation, 
there was some strife between the races. 

Provocations were often excessively resented, and, as is al- 
ways the case, in such crises, every wrong done, if a colored 
man was the subject, even every peccadillo, was magnified, 
many times over, by political opponents. 

The situation in the South figured largely in the North in 
the elections of 1866. The Republicans succeeded. The Re- 
construction Acts were passed, over the President's veto, 
March 2d, and March 19th, 1867. Gen. Pope was placed in 
command of the district composed of Georgia, Florida, Ala- 
bama and Mississippi. Gen. Wager Swayne took command 
of the state, with headquarters at Montgomery. The state 
had been thoroughly reorganized and her courts in full 
operation for nearly eighteen months ; but now the sound of 
the bugle, resounding night and morning through the cor- 
ridors of her capitol, indicated that all power was again in 
the mailed hand of the soldier. The army had come to over- 
throw the government set up by the people under the plan 
devised by Lincoln and followed by Johnson ; just as, two 
years before, it had come to destroy the government that had 
existed under Jefferson Davis. 

Gen. Swayne, in a speech at Montgomery, March 1867, 
thus pictured the situation : " It is nearly two years since the 



KECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 39 

war ended, yet instead of the blessings of peace, we have had 
difficulties which can hardly be exaggerated and which are 
still increasing; criminations and re-criminations springing 
from the past ; doubt engendering paralysis and poverty to 
blight all present effort ; discouragement and apprehension 
clouding all our future/' 

There was yet a possibility that the reconstruction policy 
of Congress might fail. President Johnson, though Congress 
was constantly passing bills over his vetoes, was still standing 
firm. He thought that, if a proper case were brought, the 
Supreme Court would declare the laws void. That they were 
violative of the Constitution he had no manner of doubt, and 
feeling, as he always did, supreme confidence in the judgment 
of the people, he was absolutely sure that such would be the 
popular verdict in the Presidential election of 1868. 

But the majority of the people of Alabama were not as 
hopeful as was the President. 

In April, 1867, Albert Gallatin Brown, formerly United 
States Senator from Mississippi, and possessing largely the 
confidence of Southern people, came out in a letter advising 
acquiescence in the policy of Congress, and participation in 
the proceedings described by the Reconstruction Acts, that 
peace and as good government as was possible might be 
secured to the country. His letter was soon reenforced by 
another of similar import from John A. Campbell, a distin- 
guished Alabamian, formerly a Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States. A majority of the leading papers of 
the state took the same position. They advised acquiescence 
and assistance, '^not because we approv^e the policy of the 
reconstruction laws, but because it is the best we can do.'' 

The leader of the opposition was Gen. James H. Clanton, 
a man of phenomenal courage, of great directness of thought 
and speech and of singular magnetism. He had been a 
Whig, and was opposed to secession; but when the war began, 
believing in the doctrine of state sovereignty, he cast his lot 
with the people of his state and made a brave Confederate 
soldier. He now organized the opposition under the name 
of the Conservative party of Alabama. This was a name 
that would offend the prejudices of no one and would em- 



40 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

brace all who desired to preserve the government that had 
been organized in the state under the Presidential plan. 

On the 11th of May, 1867, Senator Henry Wilson, of 
Massachusetts, made a political speech at the capitol in Mont- 
gomery to a great crowd of whites and blacks. He took the 
position that the Republican party had entitled itself to the 
votes of all the colored men, and then, assuming that the 
negroes must and would act together, he made an able appeal 
to white men to join them. Gen. Clanton replied, combating 
Mr. Wilson's positions, and especially contending that the 
Southern white man was the natural ally and best friend of 
the negro. Gen. Clanton's speech had wide circulation and 
great effect. It pointed out that the result of the teachings 
of Senator Wilson would be the establishment in the state of 
a party that would be controlled by aliens and colored men. 
A few days afterwards. May 14th, Judge Kelley, of Penn- 
sylvania, made a political speech at night in the streets of 
Mobile, which, unfortunately, Avas attended by a riot. Pistols 
were fired, mostly, if not entirely, in the air, and, though 
nobody was hurt in the riot, the meeting was broken up. 
Gen. Swayne, after investigation, reported. May 20th, to 
Gen. Pope that ''the disturbance was not apprehended or 
deliberately planned, unless, possibly, by a small party of 
ruffians, such as are usually found in cities,'^ etc. Gen. Pope, 
nevertheless, thought proper to remove Major Withers for 
not preventing the riot, and he appointed in his stead a Mr. 
Gustavus Horton. 

The following is an example of the administration of Mr. 
Horton : — 

^ The Mobile Tribune had been publishing some spicy criti- 
cisms of his decisions, and had made mention, also, of Mr. 
Bromberg, then affiliating politically with the mayor. Charles 
Archie Johnson was a good-natured, half-witted, loud- 
mouthed deformed negro news-vender; and on one particular 
occasion he made himself especially offensive by crying aloud 
on the streets, "Here's yer Mobile Tribune, wid all about 
Mayor Horton an' his Bomberg rats." The IMayor, it is 
said,^^considered this an offense against the "Civil Rights 
Bill/' which, as we shall see, afterwards made a marked 



SECONSTKUCTION IN ALABAMA. 41 

figure in Alabama Courts, and he actually sentenced the 
negro Johnson to banishment from Mobile to New Orleans. 
This was all very ludicrous. Banishment is contrary to the 
genius of American government ; but so is the appointment 
of a civil officer in time of peace by a military chieftain ; 
and the logical mind of the mayor, who had gotten his power 
from Gen. Pope, was unable to comprehend why he, Mayor 
Horton, could not banish a negro, just over to New Orleans. 

Soon after the assignment of Gen. Swayne to the command 
over Alabama it came to be an open secret that he was a 
prospective candidate for the United States Senate. 

As far back as June 4th, 1866, the General had begun to 
make straight the way before him. On that day, which was 
two days after the first meeting of the Montgomery Council 
of the Union League of America, his name was proposed for 
membership in that Council and on the next day he was 
initiated. This Council was simply an association of those 
who were training themselves for leadership in the party, 
which, it was then evident, Congress was about to legislate 
into existence in Alabama. It is true that the Constitution of 
the League declared in the concluding words of Sec. 2 that 
its purpose was '4o protect, strengthen and defend all loyal 
men without regard to sect, condition or party '^; but if it 
had had no other object than this it would have welcomed all 
good men to membership. The minutes show, however, that 
many such were refused admission, evidently from the spirit 
of rivalry, for nearly all these rejections occurred after the 
passage of the reconstruction laws, and when the time was 
drawing near for a division of the spoils. Indeed, the pur- 
poses of the organization are not left to inference at all. 
May 22d, 1867, this Montgomery Council resolved "that the 
Union League is the right arm of the Union Republican 
party of the United States, and that no man should be 
initiated into the League who does not heartily endorse the 
principles and policy of the Union Republican party.'^ 

The Montgomery Council was composed mainly, if not 
altogether, of white Republicans. The Lincoln Council, in 
the same city, and many others elsewhere, were for blacks, 
principally. While the Union League was a means of solidi- 



42 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

fying the negro vote, it was also used to shut out white men. 
Not only were reputable citizens kept out by the votes of 
members, but the very framework of the League was so con- 
structed as to exclude most of the Southern whites. The 
fifth question asked of an applicant upon his initiation was 
''Do you hold and believe that secession is treason ?'' etc. 
Of course, although the man who had fought for secession 
was willing to renounce it for the future, he could not be ex- 
pected to assent to this proposition. 

When Southern white men were thus excluded from, while 
the negro was sworn into, this controlling organization, no 
other political result was possible than that which followed — a 
republican party dominated by negroes — a black man's party. 

Gen. Swayne's Chief Clerk, Keiffer, was Secretary of the 
Montgomery Council, U. L. A., and was also chairman of the 
Kepublican Executive Committee for the State. When Gen. 
Pope, May 21st, 1867, ordered the registration of voters, 
Gen. Swayne appointed for each of the forty-two districts 
three persons, all Republicans. Montgomery was headquarters 
of the General and of the Republican party. From that 
city General Swayne sent five colored men to be registrars in 
distant counties. Thus while registration proceeded during 
the day these registrars had opportunity at night to organize 
the Union League among the colored men who came to be 
registered. 

Mystery is always attractive, especially to the uneducated. 
To the freedman an invitation to join a secret league, which 
was to protect him in the newly-found liberties, of which he 
was told his former master was conspiring to deprive him, 
was simply irresistible ; and the invitation certainly lost no 
force because it came from those who were his guardians by 
law and who claimed that their party had freed liim. In the 
Union League the negroes were sworn with uplifted hand, '' in 
the presence of God and these witnesses," " to vote only for, 
and for none but, those who advocate and support the great 
principles set forth by the League to fill any office of honor, 
profit or trust in either the State or General Government."* 



-X- 



See Eitual, Constitution and By-Laws of National Council Union 
League, p. 13. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 43 

The forms and ceremonies for the initiation of a member, 
as prescribed in the pamphlet above quoted, when followed 
by an explanation of the signs, grips and pass-words, as 
printed in the key intended '^ for the use of officers of the 
Council only,^' must have been, to the inexperienced freed- 
man, another chapter from Revelations. How impressive 
these words, which the initiating officer spoke to the new 
members, " with clasped and uplifted hands repeat after me 
the Freed man's Pledge — To defend and perpetuate Freedom ^ 
Political Equality and an indivisible Union I pledge my life, my 
fortune and my sacred honor. So help me God ! '^ 

These are some of the things that occurred inside of the 
League. Outside, the freed man found leading members of 
Congress coming down South to tell him that his allegiance 
was due to the party that had freed him and given him the 
bdlot. He also found great soldiers, like Gen. Swayne, giv- 
ing the same advice. 

What folly for Mr. Greeley to deplore the formation of 
" a black man's party " ! The forces brought to bear upon 
the freedman could not be resisted ; he was clay in the hands 
of the potter ; and was fashioned to the uses of those who 
wrouorht. 

Gen. Swayne, though he undoubtedly hoped to get office 
by the destruction of the Lincoln-Johnson Government in 
Alabama, was nevertheless far more conservative in his utter- 
ances than his superior, Gen. Pope. In a letter to Gen. Grant 
of date July 14th, 1867, Gen. Pope wrote concerning the 
freedmen : " It may be safely said that the marvelous pro- 
gress made in the education of these people, aided by the noble 
charitable contributions of Northern societies and individuals, 
finds no parallel in the history of manldnd. If continued, it 
must be by the same means, and if the masses of the white 
people exhibit the same indisposition to be educated that they 
do now, five years will have transferred intelligence and educa- 
tion, so far as the masses are concerned, to the colored people 
of this District," which included Georgia, Florida, Alabama 
and Mississippi. In the South this was looked upon as an 
official justification of the scheme to put the black race over 
the white, and it did not there popularize either the General 



44 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

in command or the policy of Congress ; but the marvelous 
prophecy may have found believers in other parts of the 
country. 

All these things tended to drive away those intelligent 
and influential men whose support was necssary to the suc- 
cess of a llepublican party in Alabama, but there still re- 
mained a very great indisposition to oppose tlie policy of 
Congress. 

July 23d, 1867, General Clanton, Chairman of the State 
Committee, called a convention of the opposition, tlien called, 
as we have seen, " the Conservative Party of Alabama,'' to 
meet on September 4th. Strenuous efforts were made tO 
secure a large attendance, but only thirteen out of the sixty- 
five counties of the state were represented. But now the 
teachings of those who were organizing the black man's 
party were beginning to bring results that u»ere startling. 
The negro was rapidly assuming an attitude of hostility to 
the Southern white man. Several instances had occurred 
during this summer of colored men resisting arrest by white 
officers ; and now the idea of forcibly preventing the meet- 
ing of the Conservative or Opposition Convention at Mont- 
gomery began to take shape. Fortunately, however, a few 
leading colored meu, appreciating the situation, formed them- 
selves into a "SPECIAL Committee on the Situation/^ and 
resolved that they would " use all the influence they may 
possess to counteract any acts of violence," if offered, " to 
the convention." They were so successful that the delegates 
to the convention did not know of the danger till it had 
passed. Two days afterwards, September 6th, 1867, L. J. 
Williams, a colored Republican, published a card, as chair- 
man, setting forth what this " Special Committee " had 
done, and taking to it the credit of having preserved the 
peace. It was indeed creditable to Williams and the com- 
mittee acting with him, that they should suppress this con- 
templated outrage. The fact, however, that such a move- 
ment should have been conceived by those, who had so 
lately been slaves, is an amazing proof of the facility with 
which the colored men imbibed the lessons that were being 
taught them. As it was, the convention met and adjourned 



EECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 45 

in peace, after having passed resolutions deprecating efforts 
to array race against race, favoring education of the negro 
and expressing the belief that Congress did not possess the 
power to regulate suffrage, Some months after this occur- 
rence one Wade Potter, a colored man, who had been speak- 
ing in the interest of the Democrats, was assaulted by a 
mob of negroes in the streets of ^lontgomery, and a serious 
riot was only prevented by the coolness and courage of 
Gen. Clanton, who came personally to the rescue of Potter. 
The extent to which the color line was drawn in those days 
by the colored people may be judged of when it is stated 
that negroes who dared to vote with the Democrats w^ere 
often expelled from their churches. 

Gen. Pope, August 31st, ordered an election for delegates 
to a Constitutional Convention, the voting to begin October 
1st, 1867, and last three days. At this election 18,553 white 
men voted for delegates. Besides these, many more passively 
favored this reconstruction policy by refusing to register. 

The convention to frame a new constitution met on tho 
5th of jS^ovember, 1867, and it was a remarkable assem- 
blage. Some of its members were Alabamians, intent on 
the best government that might be possible; others were 
natives of the state, with not a thought beyond self; many 
were negroes, for the most part densely ignorant, and many 
were Northern men who, having failed in life at home, had 
come South to seek their fortunes in politics, carrying all 
their worldly possessions in grip-sacks — " carpet-baggers.^^ 
In a Democratic newspaper, the place of nativity of ninety- 
seven out of a hundred members of the convention purports 
to have been given ; thirty-one of them being from Vermont, 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Jer- 
sey, New York, Ohio, Canada and Scotland. The debates in 
the convention on disfranchising certain classes of whites, on 
mixed schools, intermarriage of the races, and other ques- 
tions were exciting and inflammatory. These discussions, 
duly reported by the newpapers of the day, were read through- 
out the state with the deepest concern. An overwhelming 
majority of the constituency of this convention was colored, 
and it had not been long in session before it became quite 



46 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

clear that the black man's party was in control. The fact, 
that had begun to dawn on Mr. Greeley even at his distance, 
in Alabama was startling. 

Every member of the Convention had entered it as a friend 
of the reconstruction policy of Congress ; but delegates began 
now to falter, and when the Convention adjourned, thirteen of 
them issued an address, December 10th, 1867, protesting 
ao-ainst the constitution that had been agreed upon, because 
'^it tended to the abasement and degradation of the white 
population of the state,'^ because it authorized mixed schools 
and because the Convention had refused to prohibit the inter- 
marriao'e of the races. The protest pointed out, as evidencing 
the measure in which leading white Republicans cringed to their 
colored colleagues, that, ^Hhough the Judiciary Committee 
had unanimoitdy reported a measure providing against amal- 
gamation, yet the Convention tabled it ; and many members 
of the Committee, who had concurred in the report of the Oom- 
mitteej receding from their position, voted to lay it on thetable.^^ 

The white people of the state were now greatly depressed. 
Many sought homes in Texas — some in the North and West, 
and numbers went to Brazil. So general was the disposition 
to go in this last direction that on the 17th December, 1867, 
Mr. Chas. Nathan, of New Orleans, published notice that he had 
contracted with the Emperor of Brazil to carry to that country 
one thousand families per annum. Those, however, who still 
hoped for the failure of the Congressional plan of reconstruc- 
tion were much encouraged by the result of the fall elections 
of 1867 in the North. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Connecticut and California all went Democratic on anti- 
negro suffrage resolutions, and in Ohio the suffrage amend- 
ment was defeated by 50,000 majority. 

Greatly to the relief of the people, Gen. Pope was, on the 
28th day of December, 1867, relieved, and Gen. Meade, Jan- 
uary 6tli, took command of the District. Early in January 
Gen. Swayne was also sent away from the state. 

The Vote on the Constitution. 

The election for the ratification or rejection of the Consti- 
tution was to be held on the 1st, 2d and 3d of February, 



KECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 47 

1868, and its friends and foes now prepared for the conflict. 
The law of Congress provided that at this election officers to 
carry on the new government should be chosen, to take office, 
however, only upon event of the ratification of t'he Constitu- 
tion. The Republicans nominated a full ticket; among them 
the following from the Freedmen's Bureau : Applegate, of 
Ohio, for Lieutenant-Governor ; Miller, of Maine, Secretary 
of State; Reynolds, of Maine, Auditor; Jno. C. Keiffer, of 
Ohio, Commissioner Internal Revenue. As a sample of their 
nominations for county officers in localities where Northerners 
had located, the ticket for Montgomery County may be given. 
For the Legislature; Willard Warner, of Ohio, Paul Strobach, 
of Austria, and three colored men. For County officers : Pro- 
bate Judge Eely, of New York ; Clerk Circuit Court, Brain- 
ard, a Northerner; and for Sheriff, Barbour, also a Northerner. 
All these had come into the state either with the army or had 
followed in its wake. 

The Conservatives determined to defeat the Constitution if 
possible. It was deemed a serious menace to the welfare of 
the state. 

" Born of the Bayonet.^^ 

Mr. Sumner, when the vote on the reconstruction bill of 
March 2, 1867, was about to be taken, troubled his associates 
in the Senate very much by a sudden flash of his old love for 
government based on the consent of the people. He would 
vote for the bill, but confessed his regret that Congress should 
employ the military for the purposes of reconstruction, and 
said, " I would not see new states born of the bayonet.'^ 

But so the new state of Alabama literally was. A clause 
in the supplementary Act of March 23d required that a 
majority of the registered vote should be cast, else the Con- 
stitution could not be ratified, even though it received every 
vote that was polled. Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, had 
pointed out in debate one possible effect of this provision of 
the bill thus : "It is a proposition to enable the rebel leaders 
to take advantage of all persons who are hostile to these terms 
and all persons who cannot go to the poljs to vote.'^ But the 
motion to strike it out was voted down. The provision 



48 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

became a law, after the attention of Congress had been called 
to the effect it might have, and it never occurred to any man 
in Alabama, that Congress would disregard and violate its 
own enactment. 

A conference of prominent Conservatives from all parts of 
the state met at the Exchange Hotel, in Montgomery, on the 
first day of January, 1868, to consider how the proposed Con- 
stitution could best be defeated. After an anxious considera- 
tion of the whole subject, protracted for three days, it was 
decided to register and remain away from the polls, making 
no nominations for fear that friends of the candidates, in 
localities where they were likely to be successful, might be 
tempted to vote for the constitution. An eloquent address 
was issued, signed by all the participants in the conference, 
closing thus : " With a deep and solemn apprehension of the 
perils of our condition, with a painful sense of the responsi- 
bility of advising or indicating a course of action ; after in- 
voking the presence and guidance in our deliberations of that 
God, who presides over the destinies of nations, after elaborate 
and ])rotracted and unreserved conference and discussion," 
they had come to the conclusion to recommend that electors 
should register and not vote. 

The time for holding the election was protracted by Gen. 
Meade, from three to five days, that all might have the fullest 
opportunity to vote. The constitution was beaten. It carried 
down with it, of course, all the Republican candidates ; but, 
as they had no opponents, these candidates would all take 
office if Congress could be induced to declare that the consti- 
tution had been ratified. In that event the newly-created 
Republican party of Alabama would have full possession of 
every department of the state government. So a delegation 
was immediately started off to Washington, to make charges 
of frauds in the election, which had been held under military 
supervision. The House Committee on Reconstruction at 
Washington, without waiting to hear from Gen. Meade, who, 
on the spot, was investigating these complaints, reported, on 
March 10th, in favor of declaring that the constitution had 
been ratified. The reasoning era ployed to sustain this conclusion 
would be incredible if it were not of record. The report says: 



EECONSTKUCTION IN ALABAMA. 49 

" Some time before the Alabama election the committee saw 
the injustice of the law (meaning the provision which required 
a majority of the registered electors to vote), and requested 
Congress to restore the majority principle in the vote on the 
constitution. The House did not hesitate to perceive the in- 
justice and passed the act and sent it to the Senate. 2%e 
Senate suffered the act to sleep on their files for two months. 
They then (which was after the election was over) took it up 
and passed it, and it has now {after the election) passed both 
Houses. The principle then that a majority of votes shall 
govern has been restored and your committee can see tio reason 
why it should not govern in this easeJ^ This was arguing that 
the result of an election could be changed by a subsequent 
change of the law under which it was held. 

Thirteen days after this Gen. Meade made his report. In 
it he says, that some of the Alabama Republicans had asked 
him to report that the returns, "when properly explained, 
will show a majority of the registered voters as being in favor 
of this measure.'' He "regretted extremely" that he could 
not concur in this view, and said, " I cannot but look on the 
result of the recent election as the expression of opinion, that 
the registered voters do not desire to be restored under the 
Constitution submitted to them ; and, in view of the recent 
action of Congress giving ratification to a majority of the 
votes cast, I would prefer seeing the Convention reassembled 
for a revision of the Constitution and the revised Constitution 
submitted to the people under the new lawJ' The General 
did not ao;ree with the Committee of the House that the new 
laio affected the old election. He goes on to say, ''The Con- 
stitution fails of ratification by 8,114 votes." 

He then points out reasons which he thinks made the Con- 
stitution less acceptable than the Convention, and concluded 
by showing that — 

"Convention had white votes, 18,553 

While Constitution had only 5.802 

Loss in white vote, 12,751 " 

The reader, if he lives out of the state, may possibly have 
4 



50 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

forgotten what dow occurred; but on the minds of the people 
of Alabama an impression was made never to be erased. 
Congress did not venture to declare that Gen. Meade's report 
did not truthfully state the results of the election, but, 
waiting till certain others of the states had held their elec- 
tions under the new law, it placed Alabama with these and 
admitted them all in one act, declaring in the preamble that 
they had adopted their Constitutions "by large majoiities of 
the votes cast at the elections held for the ratitication or rejec- 
tion of the same;'' whereas the law governing the Alabama 
election. Act of March 23d, 1867, Sec. 5, required tliat there 
should be cast "a majority of the votes of the registered 
voters voting upon the question of such ratification." 

In the face of the indisputable fact that the Constitution 
was defeated according to this law by an overwhelming 
majority, and of the peculiar wording, as above given, of this 
act of admission, the inference is, that members reconciled 
themselves to vote for this bill upon the theory avowed in 
passing the original reconstruction acts, viz. : that the whole 
question was "absolutely in the hands of Congress," and it 
could do as it pleased. But if this was the theory of the 
bill, then the only possible answer to the charge of misleading 
the Conservatives in Alabama, who relied upon the law as it 
was written, is that " no faith is to be kept with heretics." 

II. WHAT THE REPUBLICANS DID WHEN IN CONTROL. 

The newly-made legislators were fond of their avocation. 
They held three sessions in their first year, beginning respect- 
ively July 13th, September 16th and November 2d. There 
were twenty-six negroes in the House and one in the Senate. 
They were, of course, unfitted by want of education for the 
high positions they occupied; but so much deference was 
shown to them and the constituencies behind them that they 
naturally supposed the supremacy of the black man's party 
was secure. They had been led out of captivity into the 
promised land, and now it was to be theirs forever. That 
this was the sentiment that animated them was abundantly 
manifest by the debates. It is much to their credit that, 



RECONSTEUCTIOX IN ALABAMA. 51 

while under the belief that power was irrevocably theirs, 
they cousentecl, at the first session of the Legislature, to the 
enactment of a law relieving of disabilities those who were 
disfranchised by the State Constitution. Gov. W. H. Suv-tb/ 
was understood to be largely instrumental in securiiifi^J 'th(5 
passage of the bill. 

State Credit. 

In the first report made by the Republican State Auditor, 
Mr. R. M. Reynolds, .he said : " Alabama stands in a proud 
position in the financial world. . . . Nothing but gross 
mismanagement of her finances wnll cause her credit to 
decline.'^ Of that credit the State had always been proud. 
More than one installment of gold was sent through the block- 
ade during the war to pay interest on her foreign debt. 

The new state government would have been, even if hon- 
estly and carefully administered, more expensive than that 
which it had displaced. New offices had been created — a 
Lieutenant-Governor, a Commissioner of Industrial Re- 
sources, and a body, with legislative powers, called the Board 
of Education. Pay and salaries, too, had been increased all 
along the line; but the figures thus added to expenditures are 
not worth compiling in view of the vast indebtedness that 
was soon to overwhelm the state and drive her for years out 
of the money markets of the world. In the first report of 
Mr. Reynolds the 

Bonded debt of the state was $5,270,000.00 

Educational fund and miscellaneous, 3,085,683.51 



$8,355,6S3.51 



The legislative schemes already embarked had not yet 
begun to bear fruit. 

During the session beginning in July, 1868, there was no 
very important legislation. Per diem pay and mileage seemed 
to be satisfactory. At the second session a state aid law, en- 
dorsing bonds for railroad companies under certain conditions, 
which had been passed by the preceding state government, 
February 19th, 1867, was taken up, amended and the aid 



52 ' WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

. increased from |12,000 to ^1 6,000 a mile. The old law was 
said to be useless. No one would comply with its conditions. 
But if the state would endorse to the extent of sixteen 
^•vv«tead of twelve thousand dollars per mile, capitalists from 
^jYg^j^rth and from Europe were ready, it was claimed, with 
energy Enterprise and money to build railroads that would 
at once' Jlevelop the resources of the state, and in a few years 
Alabai^ would rival Pennsylvania. The theory of the law 
was that these financiers were to put money enough into ea(;h 
enterprise to build the first twenty miles of the road and 
thus secure the state against loss. But the fact was that most 
of the pretended capitalists had nothing but audacity and a 
clever knack of manipulating corrupt legislatures. Some 
had not even money enough with which to pay bribes, and 
were forced to rely on such advances as they might obtain, on 
the faith of tlieir schemes, from the confederates, who were 
to handle the bonds of the state. Bribery in the Legislature 
at first is claimed to have been so cheap that one member was 
reported to have said that some of his brethren "sold their 
votes for prices that would have disgraced a negro in the 
time of slavery." Various roads were begun, constructed, 
after a fashion, for a few miles and then abandoned. The 
schemers had no funds of their own, or, if they had, they 
did not invest them in Alabama. They swore falsely to get 
the bonds and always got them ; sometimes for many miles 
that had not been touched. 

MILES. 

The E. A. & C. was built 25 

The Selma & Gulf, 40 

Marion & Memphis 45 

Savannah & Memphis, 40 

Selma & New Orleans, 20 

Only one road begun under this law was completed, the A. 
& C. It was two hundred and ninety-five miles in length, 
and entitled by the statute to endorsement ivhen completed to 
the extent of §4,420,000. But, when yet lacking one hun- 
dred miles of completion, it had received, as shown by the 
report made to the House of Representatives by B. B. Lewis, 
Chairman in 1873, bonds to the extent of $5,300,000; and, 



RECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 53 

not even satisfied with these, it demanded of the Legislature 
$2,000,000 of straight bonds- and got them. 

Governor W. H. Smith issued most 6 P these^ bonds, inchid- 
ing the over-issue to the A.. & C No one believes- ir ^ 
accepted any bribe, but he was criminally careless. /-^In a let- 
ter dated April 3d, 1871, after explaining the over-issues, he 
said, "I admit that if I had attended strictly to the endorse- 
ment and issue of these bonds that all this never would have 
occurred/' He trusted the railroad company and the bond 
brokers, who were leagued together to rob the state. Besides 
the general state aid law, many special acts were passed. 
February 25th, 1870, a bill authorizing the state to endorse 
for the M. & M. R. R. Co. to the extent of ^2,500; March 
3d, 1870, an additional endorsement of $6,000 per mile for 
the S. & N. R. R. Co. was provided for. The Legislature 
had also, December 31st, 1868, authorized cities and towns 
to subscribe. From these the adventurers now secured large 
amounts of bonds to be issued by counties lying along the 
lines of their projected roads; from Lee County, $275,000; 
Pickens, §80,000; Chambers,8l50,000;Tallapoosa,$125,000; 
Randolph, §100,000; Dallas, $140,000. The bonds were 
received and sold, but the roads were never completed. Sev- 
eral cities and towns also subscribed. 

The Liberality of the Colored Man, 

Whenever the question of subscription was before the 
people, the colored man, paying little or no taxes, was relied 
upon to vote down the unwilling tax-payer. Some striking 
instances of the liberality of the negro in official position are 
furnished the writer by Judge P. G. Wood, of Dallas County, 
who, as Probate Judge, is in charge of the books and speaks 
advisedly. These are here given as samples. 

The Court of County Commissioners has entire control of 
county finances. Four Republicans with the Probate Judge 
composed this court in Dallas County, two white and two 
colored, and one of the latter alwaj^s signed his mark because 
he could not write. September 11th, 1864, a question being 
before the court of the rate of taxation, both the whites voted 



54 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

for the lower and both the colored men voted for the higher 
rate, *' although their names do not appear on the tax 
books/' 
^.^^This same court elected a physician for the jail prisoners 
\ ^^^(*)[7^ ^6^' y^^LV. The Slieriff, who was jailer, denied their 
rie-ht to e^^' refused admittance to their physician and em- 
ployed c>3 himself. On September 4th, 1874, the court 
allowed ^^ claim of its doctor, who had not performed the 
service?, and on the same day allowed the claim of the Sher- 
iff's doctor, who had. ^' Equality is equity." 

This county, though in that respect it was by no means 
alone, was blessed with illiterate office-holders ; and it was 
one of the richest counties in the state. November 7th, 1871, 
it elected nine colored Justices of the Peace, several of whom 
could scarcely write their names. One of them made no 
claim to education, and, scorning all false pretences, made his 
cross-mark on his official bond. A Justice of the Peace in 
Alabama has authority among other things, to try posses- 
sory actions relating to lands of whatever value, and may in- 
carcerate to await trial, or discharge even persons accused of 
murder. At the same time, November 7th, 1871, three 
colored constables were elected, who signed their official bonds 
by cross-marks. Constables execute process civil and crim- 
inal, including such as require sales of pro^^erty to satisfy 
executions. 

That it was deemed the proper thing in those days to put 
illiterates in high and responsible positions is shown by the 
fact that the Republican Governor, Lewis, in December, 1873, 
appointed to a vacancy in the Court of County Commis- 
sioners of Dallas, Oscar Huntley, who could not write. His 
name is signed to the minutes of the court by his cross-mark, 
and he possessed not more than the average capacity of the 
uneducated colored man. These and other like occurrences 
elsewhere in the state demonstrate that ^'the black man's 
party," the formation of which Mr. Greeley had feared, was 
in full control ; for not only did the negroes themselves select 
of their own color incompetent men for office, but they com- 
pelled their Governor to do the same thing. A representative 
Republic is representative in fact as well as in name. 



KECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. _ 55 

The Election of 1870. 

In November, 1870, an election was held for Governor 
and other officers, and for members of the Lower House of 
the Legislature. The Senators all held over, refusing to clas- 
sify and allow half of their number to be elected, as the 
Democrats contended their Constitution required. The can- 
vass was an exciting one. During the previous year certain 
leading Republicans had petitioned Gov. Smith to call out 
the negro militia under the pretence of enforcing the law. 
The Governor, as his letter hereafter quoted shows, under- 
stood the motive perfectly. He was a Republican and desired 
the success of his party; but he refused to enter into the plans 
of these conspirators against the peace of the state, and, in 
his message of November 15th, 1869, replied to this demand, 
without mentioning it, by the statement : " Nowhere have the 
courts been interrupted. No resistance has been encountered 
by officers of court in their efforts to discharge the duties im- 
posed upon them by law." Eight months afterwards, when 
the Republican primaries began to be held, the County Con- 
vention of Madison, dominated by certain of these men, 
criticised the Governor for not having complied with their 
demand. In a letter to the Huntsville Advocate, dated July 
25th, 1870, Governor Smith replied, denouncing '^ Geo. E. 
" Spencer (Senator), J. D. Sibley, J. J. Hinds and others" as 
systematically uttering every conceivable falsehood. . . . 
During my entire administration of the State Government 
but one officer has certified to me that he was unable, on ac- 
count of lawlessness, to execute his official duties. That officer 
was the Sheriff of Morgan Coui^. I immediately made 
application to Gen. Crawford for Troops. They were sent, 
and the said sheriff refused their assistance. . . . My 
candid opinion is that Sibley does not want the law exe- 
cuted, because that would put down crime, and crime is his 
life's blood. Re would like very much to have a ku-klux out- 
rage every week to assist him in keeping up strife between the 
whites and the blacks, that he might be more certain of the votes 
of the latter. He tvould like to have a feiv colored men killed 
every week to furnish semblance of truth to Spencer^ s libels upon 



5G WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

the people of the state generally. The man acts as though 
he thought it Avould be his duty to insult every man who ever 
had any connection with the rebellion. ... It is but pro- 
per in this connection that I should speak in strong terms 
of condemnation of the conduct of two ichite men in Taskegee 
a few days ago in advising the colored men to resist the author- 
ity of the Sheriff; and these are not hi-Jdnx, but are .Republi- 
cans.^' The author of this letter was not only a Republican 
Governor, but he was overwhelmingly renominated shortlj^ 
afterwards. 

In November Lindsay and the other Democratic candidates 
for state offices were elected. Lindsay's majority for Govei-nor 
was decided, but Gov. Smith began a contest by suing out an 
injunction, which was served on R. N. Barr, President of the 
Senate. As the other Republican nominees had not contested 
the election of their opponents, the Democratic Lieutenant- 
Governor elect, Moren, took his seat as presiding officer of 
the Senate, and as such counted the vote. Lindsay was de- 
clared legally elected. Smith's attorneys had not enjoined 
Moren. But Governor Smith barricaded himself in the 
Executive chamber, and, surrounding it by United States 
troops, refused to surrender the office. Federal troops were 
always present in those days to render prompt obedience to 
the orders of the Republican Governor. December 6th, 
Judge J. Q. Smith, a Republican judge, issued a notice to 
Governor Smith to show cause why he should not surrender 
the books and papers of the office. Smith appeared and aban- 
doned his contest. 

Governor Lindsay's administration was not a success. In- 
deed, an abler man than he might well have failed. The 
Lower House was Democratic, but the Senate was Republican. 
The state had already defaulted. There was no money to pay 
interest with and the credit of the state was at a low ebb. 

Governor Lindsay was not only unable to cope with the 
situation, but was himself guilty of carelessness. He per- 
mitted himself to be duped,~by false affidavits, into endorsing 
$400,000 of the bonds of the E. A. & C. R. R., when it had 
liot been built as required by that Act. The Democrats in 
convention, in 1872, not only failed to renominate Gov.Lind- 



KECONSTKUCTION IN ALABAMA. 57 

say, as is the party custom in the state for one term, but they 
also omitted to endorse his administration. It was fortunate, 
however, that in 1870 they had elected a majority of the*^ 
Lower House in the Legislature, for at the session of 1870-71 
another set of financiers had made up their minds to come 
down South and help build up Alabama. Their demand was 
for $5,000,000 with which to set furnaces and factories going. 
They were too late. If they had only come the session be- 
fore there was no chance for a bill containing $5,000,000, 
properly pressed, to have failed. 

Governor Lewis, 

In November, 1872, Grant carried the state over Greeley, 
and at the same election D. P. Lewis, a Republican, was 
elected Governor. The Democrats claimed both branches of 
the Legislature according to the returns ; and their members- 
elect met in the chambers at the capitol as provided by law. 
But Senator George E. Spencer, the same who had quarreled 
with Governor Smith for not calling out the negro militia, 
was to be re-elected at this session, and, on his advice, the Re- 
publicans assembled what was called, from its place of meet- 
ing, the Court-House Legislature, claiming that they had a 
quorum in both branches. Governor Lindsay recognized the 
Capitol bodies. This Capitol Legislature, having possession 
of the returns, counted the votes in due time and declared 
Lewis elected Governor. Gov. Lewis accepted the count, but 
repudiated those who made it, and recognized the Court-House 
bodies. 

Gov. Lewis, too, called for United States troops, and they 
came. In a letter dated Dec. 1st, 1872, the Governor himself 
narrates : '' I telegraphed Capt. T. B. Weir, 7th U. S. Cavalry, 
at Opelika, after night of the 29th, to corn^ to llontgomery 
with all disposable force by first train, to which he responded. 
Early on Saturday fnorning Capt. Weir arrived with thirty 
men and reported to Mr. Strobach, tvho stationed them on a 
vacant lot adjoining the Capitol, where they are now quietly 
tentedj^ 

It is to be noted here that this was four years after Con- 



58 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

gress had declared Alabama rehabilitated and entitled to all 
the rights of statehood. 

The new State of Montana has at this writing (February, 
1889) two rival bodies, each claiming to be the lawful legis- 
lature. If, when this case arose, Gov. Toole had telegraphed 
for United States troops, and they had come by first train and 
encamped on a lot adjoining the capitol to aid the Governor 
of Montana and his political party, the case would have been 
entirely analogous to that at Montgomery in December, 1872. 

After having surrounded his capitol with United States 
troops, the next move of the Chief Executive of Alabama 
was to call to his aid the Republican Attorney-General of the 
United States, who sent a telegram proposing terms for the 
settlement of the dispute. The Governor, in his letter sub- 
mitting this telegram to the Capitol Legislature, denominated 
^' these suggestions as a gentle intimation of the convictions of 
the law officer of the United States Government of his views.'' 

As this "gentle intimation" was reinforced by United 
States troops, "quietly tented on a lot adjoining the Capitol," 
the Democrats thought there was nothing left but to submit. 

December 17, 1870, both Houses organized under the 
Attorney-General's plan. This left the Democrats with still 
a majority on joint ballot. The next morning, December 1 8th, 
the presiding officer of the Senate, McKinstry, the Kepubli- 
can Lieutenant-Governor, announced that he had changed 
his mind, and concluded that the Senate could not be organ- 
ized under the " plan" until a pending contest of Miller, Re- 
publican, against Martin, Democratic incumbent, was decided. 

Hamilton, Democrat, appealed from the decision of the 
chair. McKinstry, without precedent to sustain him, refused 
to allow the appeal and the Democrats submitted. 

Time was required to take testimony in the Miller-Martin 
case. 

During the interval Edwards, a Democratic Senator, called 
home by sickness, "paired" on the Miller-Martin contest with 
Glass, Republican. Edwards gone, the case was at oncebrought 
on. Glass broke his pair and voted. Parks, a Democrat, 
changed his vote and moved a re-consideration to get time to 
send for Edwards. McKinstry refusing to entertain the 



RECONSTEUCTION IN ALABAMA. 59 

motion, Parks offered to put it himself, but his colleagues 
begged him to desist. 

So McKiiistry, riding roughshod over the law, declared 
Miller, Republican, seated from a Democratic district. 

When McKinstry made an arbitrary ruling his answer to 
Democratic protests was : " Gentlemen, I hope you do not 
mean violence. If you do I will leave the chair." 

The meaning of this was only too plain. United States 
troops were hard by, ready to assist the Republican presiding 
officer if the Democrats, who constituted a majority of the 
Senate, did not peaceably submit to his arbitrary ruling. No 
Anglo-Saxon Legislative body had ever yet so tamely bowed 
its neck to the yoke of a master ; unless it was in some simi- 
larly situated Southern state, but the once proud state of 
Alabama was now prostrate in the dust. Still another move 
was necessary to re-elect Senator Spencer. A Democratic mem- 
ber of the House, socially inclined, after indulging in liquor with 
some Rej)ublican friends the night before, was too sick to 
attend the election next day ; and so Mr. Geo. E. Spencer 
went to the United States Senate for six years more. The 
member claimed that his liquor was drugged. 

The Judiciary. 

Never was the will of the voter more clearly reflected by 
his servant in high place than by the Republican office-hold- 
er in Alabama. The judges of the Supreme Court were all 
Alabamians, long identified with the state, but, w^ith possibly one 
exception, they bowed to what were supposed to be the prejudices 
of the dominant element in their party with as much deference as 
did Convention and Legislature. They decided that whites and 
blacks could inter-marry. It will be remembered that the state 
convention had simply voted down a provision to prevent in- 
ter-marriage. A subsequent Legislature had adopted a large 
body of pre-existing law without having observed, perhaps, 
that one clause forbade inter-marriage of the races. It will 
amuse lawyers to know that the learned Alabama Court held 
that this law was nullified by the Civil Rights Bill passed 
by Congress. Of course, the Supreme Court of the United 



QO WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

States decided diiFerently when a case was brought before it. 
The Alabama Court decided, Judge Saffold dissenting, that the 
acts of Mr. Spencer's Court-House Legislature were valid, 
though even the Attorney-General's figuring left their Senate 
without a quorum. It also decided that all judgments renderc d 
in the state during the war were void. From the disastrous 
consequences of such an opinion the state was only saved by 
the Supreme Court of the United States. 

In the days we write of a young law student in Alabama 
asked a witty ex-Judge of the Supreme Court if he would 
not advise him to make, in those troublous times, a special 
study of Constitutional law. " No," was the reply, " I ad- 
vise you to study all the unconstitutional law you can find." 

Ignorance of the law on the part of those in Judicial 
position was so common as of itself scarcely to cause remark, 
except among lawyers. Take, as a sample, the criminal Court 
of the City of Selma, having jurif^diction extending even to 
capital cases. Its first Judge was one Corbin, an old Vir- 
ginian, a bon vivant who had never practiced law ; and its 
first clerk was Roderick Thomas, a colored man, who had 
only acquired a little education after he was freed. Corbin, 
after the loss of his fortune, concluded to be a Re})ublican 
and a Judge, for the salary. As the old gentleman sat in 
Court, contemplating himself and his grand jurors, the ludi- 
crousness of the situation must have taken strong hold of 
him, and this it probably was that inspired his charge to the 
grand jury, July 27th, 1874, from which we make a short 
extract, premising that it is a fair sample of the whole : 

" Time was, and not very distantly, gentlemen, when this 
charge was done up and delivered in grand old style ; when 
grand old judges, robed in costly black silk gowns and coiflPured 
with huge old periwigs, swelling out their august personages, 
were escorted into the Court-rooms by obsequious sheriffs, 
bearing high before them and with stately step their blazoned 
insignia of office. . . . Fair ladies and courtly old 
dames of pinguid proportions, in rich and rustling silk bro- 
cades, flocked to grace the court-room w^ith their enchanting 
presence and to hear the august, gowned and periwigged old 
judges ventilate their classic literature and their cultivated 



KECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 61 

oratory in the grandiloquent old charge. Not French or Eng- 
lish soldiers, in leagued alliance of deathly war, on the far- 
famed heights of Balaklava, moved in more solemn tramp to 
martial step, huge blasts rippling their thrilling echoes up the 
long valley and precipitous ravines of that impregnable Rus- 
sian fortress, than did those grand old judges in their terrific 
charges against the offenders of their day," etc., etc. Poor old 
Judge Corbin ! Though he continued to vote and claim fel- 
lowship with his party, he could not keep step with them in all 
things; so they abolished his court and re-established it, all 
to put another in the judgeship. The learned ex-judge, a few 
days after this law was passed, said his party reminded him 
of "a. parcel of pigs; as soon as one got an ear of corn the 
others took after him to get it away." 

Judge Corbin's successor was his former Clerk of the Court, 
the colored man Roderick Thomas. So it could not have 
been professional ignorance that lost the old judge his seat. 
He knew quite as much law and ten times more rhetoric than 
Thomas. But Thomas got the place of judge of the Court 
that had jurisdiction over capital cases ; and another colored 
man became clerk, with no more qualifications than Thomas 
had. 



The year 1874, which was to mark another era in the his- 
tory of Alabama, had now come. The government ^' born of 
the bayonet" had been in existence six years. A general 
election was to be held in November, and both parties began 
early to prepare for the conflict. The Republicans who rep- 
resented the state in Congress had made their contributions 
at an early date. They had secured, in the Act of March 28th, 
1874, authority for the President to issue army rations and 
clothing to the destitute along the Alabama, Tombigbee 
and Warrior Rivers, all in Alabama ; and, to carry out this 
and a similar Act relating to the Mississippi, four hundred 
thousand dollars were appropriated by the Sundry Civil Act, 
approved June 23d, 1874. 

It may be as well here to give the history of this adventure, 
which was based on the pretense of a disastrous overflow. 



Q2 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

There had really been no unusual overflows anywhere in the 
state. The money sent to Alabama was distributed as an 
electioneering fund; some of it at points like Opelika, which 
had not been under water since the days of Noah's flood. This 
open prostitution of public funds, became a most effective 
weapon in the hands of the Democrats. To crown the mis- 
adventure, the Republican Governor, Lewis, probably to 
stamp with the seal of his condemnation the folly of the super- 
serviceable politicians, who had secured this hapless appro})ri- 
ation, in his message to the Legislature, just after the election, 
took occasion to say, pointedly, that the state had during the 
year been " free from floods." 

The Republicans renominated Governor Lewis and the 
Democrats selected as their candidate George S. Houston. 
And now began the great struggle which was to redeem Ala- 
bama from Republican rule. 

The state was bankrupt — its credit gone. 

Governor Lewis had reported to the I>/egislature, November 
17th, 1873, that he was '^unable to sell for money any 
of the state bonds." 

The debt, which had been at the beginning of Republican 
administration in the state S^^j356,083.51, was now, as appears 
by the official report, September 30th, 1874, including straight 
and endorsed railroad bonds, $25,503,593.30. 

City and county indebtedness had in many cases increased 
in like proportion, with no betterments to show for expendi- 
tures. 

The administration of public affairs in the state for many 
years preceding the Civil War had been notably simple and 
economical. Taxes had been low, honestly collected and 
faithftdly applied. 

To a people trained in such a school of government the 
extravagance and corruption now everywhere apparent, 
coupled with the higher rates of taxation and bankrupt con- 
dition of the treasury, were appalling. 

More intolerable still were the turmoil and strife between 
whites and blacks, created and kept alive by those who, as 
the Republican Governor Smith had said, ^^ would like to 
have a few colored men killed every week to furnish a sem- 



EECX)NSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 63 

blance of truth to Spencer's libels upon the people of the 
state generally/' as well as to make them more "certain of 
the vote of the negroes." Not only was immigration repelled 
by these causes, but good citizens were driven out of the 
state. It is absolutely safe to say that Alabama during the 
six years of Republican rule gained practically nothing by 
immigration, and at the same time lost more inhabitants by 
emigration than by that terrible war, which destroyed fully 
one-fifth of her people able to bear arms. Thousands more 
were now resolved to leave the state if, after another and 
supreme effort, they should fail to rid themselves of a domi- 
nation that was blighting all hope of the future. Few things 
are more difficult than to overcome political prf^udices as 
bitter as those which had formerly divided the white people 
of Alabama, but six years of Republican misrule had been, 
in most cases, sufficient for the purpose. In 1874 the people 
seemed to forget that they had ever been AVhigs and Demo- 
crats, Secessionists and Union men ; and when this came about 
the days of the black man's party in Alabama were num- 
bered. Although the whites had lost over twenty thousand 
men in the war who would nosv have been voting, they had 
in the state, by the census of 1870, a majority of 7,6«51 of 
those within the voting age. In 1880 this majority, as the 
census showed, was 23,038, and by the coming of age of boys 
too young to have been in the war, the white voters certainly 
outnumbered the blacks in 1874 bv over ten thousand. 

The Republicans had forced the color line upon an unwil- 
ling people. The first resolution of the Democratic platform 
of July, 1874, was that "the radical and dominant faction of 
the Republican party in this state persistently and by false 
and fraudulent representations have inflamed the passions and 
prejudices of the negroes, as a race, against the white people, 
and have thereby made it necessary for white people to unite 
and act together in self-defense and for the preservation of 
white civilization." 

That the people of the state accepted this issue in this 
manner is the rock of oifense against which partisan clamor 
in distant states has so often since that day lashed itself into 
fury. 



64 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The campaign of 1874 was not unattended by the usual 
eiForts to inflame the public mind of the North and to intimi- 
date Democratic voters at home by the display of Federal 
power, both civil and military. Troops were, of course, 
loudly called for. Charles Hayes, a member of Congress 
from the Eutaw District, published a long list of Democratic 
outrages ; and additional credence was given to his narrative 
by an endorsement of his character by Senator Hawley, of 
Connecticut. So promptly were these statements disproved, 
that Mr. Hawley was understood to have virtually recanted 
his endorsement. ^'L. M. J.," of Montgomery, who was, as 
it afterwards appeared, a certain J. M. Levy, wrote a letter 
to the Washington Chronicle, which the editor appropriately 
headed in flaming lines — 

'^ALABAMA— THE CONFLICT OF RACES. 



Horrible Assassination — The Southern Republicans Imitate 
the Indians by Symbolic Scalping of their Victims. 

The Way Negro Insurrections are Produced and Proclaimed. 

Republicans, both White and Black, Warned not to take 
Part in the Canvass. 

Murder, Personal Indignities. Hell itself Broke Loose, and 

All the Devils There. 

The United States Asked to Protect Her Citizens." 

The falsehoods of this article were proven by certificates 
from Probate Judge Geo. Eely, Deputy Marshal G. B. Ran- 
dolph, Clerk of the City Council Hughes, and J. A. Miuuis, 
United States Attorney — all Republicans. 

There were, during the year 1874, conflicts between whites 
and blacks, in which both parties received injuries and losses. 
These were incited, Democrats claimed, by Republican leaders 
to invoke the aid of Federal authorities, civil and military, 
in the pending election. It certainly was natural that those 
Republicans wlio were continually crying out that outrages 
were committed by the Democrats, should desire, for these 
complaints, some basis of fact to stand on. The Spencer 



KECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 65 

wing of the Republican party were undoubtedly pursuing the 
same tactics now as in 1870, when Governor Smith con- 
demned them in the letter from which extracts have been 
given. The Republican press, however, claimed that the acts 
which were to bring United States troops into the state to 
superintend the elections always resulted from the folly of the 
Democrats, who did not desire the presence of troops, and that 
the troubles were never instigated by the Republicans, who 
were anxious to have the troops. The political training of the 
colored man had been such that it was perfectly natural for 
him to look upon United States soldiers, when he saw them 
come into the state, as sent to see that he voted the Republi- 
can ticket. 

Another method resorted to in this campaign was to hand- 
cuff Democrats and carry them great distances and by devious 
routes through populous portions of the state, exhibiting them, 
by the w^ay, in such manner as to encourage the blacks and 
intimidate the whites. 

The United States Marshal, having warrants against two 
citizens of Choctaw County, in order to make his act more 
impressive, descended with his deputies upon the County 
Democratic Convention while in session. Having marched 
his prisoners out, instead of bringing them before a commit- 
ting officer nearer by, he carried them to Mobile, and instead 
of going by the usual route, the river, or by the next most 
usually traveled w^ay, the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, he con- 
veyed them down to Selma, across to Montgomery and then 
down the Mobile road — over three hundred miles — for a pre- 
liminary trial. The presence of troops and the exhibition of 
prisoners handcuffed, while it encouraged the negroes, served 
greatly to intensify the zeal of Democrats. Thousands of 
whites were inspired during that campaign with the feeling 
that their future homes depended u])on the result of the 
election. The aliens among the Republican leaders also felt 
that their future habitations depended on the election, for 
they had no business in Alabama, except office-holding. 

The Democrats were successful. They carried by over ten 
thousand majority all the state offices and they elected large 
majorities in both branches of the Legislature. 



QQ WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The clutch of the carpet-bagger was broken ; most of them 
left the State; and there was at once peace between whites 
and blacks. A new Constitution was adopted. Superfluous 
offices were abolished. Salaries were cut clown and fixed by 
the Constitution, some of theui, perhaps, at too low a figure ; 
and it is believed that, in many respects, the limitations upon 
the power of the Legislature were made too stringent. It 
was the necessary reaction, the swing of the pendulum from 
corruption and extravagance to the severest simplicity and 
economy in government. The coi^equences have been most 
happy. The credit of the state has been fully restored. 

When the election of 1874 took place, the State had in cir- 
culation one million dollars of obligations called " Patton '' 
or " Horse-shoe money.'^ Although this was receivable for 
taxes, and bore 8 per cent, interest, it was hawked about, be- 
fore the election, at 65 to 70 cents on the dollar. After the 
Democrats went into power these obligations went promptly 
to par, and were soon paid off and discharged. 

The indebtedness of the State, which was in 1868, $8,355,- 
683.51, and in 1874, all told, $25,503,593.00, was, September 
30th, 1888, $12,085,219.95, and every outstanding interest- 
bearing bond is now above par. To replace old bonds the 
Governor recently sold 4 per cent, bonds amounting to $900- 
000 at a premium. 

Taxes are low. Life, liberty and property are protected 
by law, and foreign capital is coming in. The property in 
the State as assessed for taxation in 1876 was ^135,585, 792,- 
00 ; in 1888 it was $223,925,869.00. 

There are no official figures that show accurately the num- 
ber of white and colored pupils in the public schools during 
the six years of public ascendancy, but ex jyecle Herculem. 

From a total school revenue of $524,621.68 in 1869, the 
Republicans paid to their school officials other than teachers 
$75,173.92. From a total school revenue of $539,209.04 in 
1888 (not counting funds arising from local taxation), school 
officials were paid $13,992.80. 

The teachers are paid partly by the State and partly from 
private sources. Attendance upon and interest in these 
schools is rapidly growing. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN ALABAMA. 67 

White. Colored. 

In 1877 attendance was .... 88,622 54,991) 

" 1888 " " ..... 159,671 98,919 

The Census showed the following number of whites and 
blacks within school age : 

White. Colored. 

1870 229,139 157,918. 

1880 217,320 170,449. 

This decrease in the number of white children (11,819) 
while the blacks were increasing (12,531) though, probably 
due, in some slight degree, to inaccuracies in the census, is 
to be accounted for by the exodus of whites in the winters of 
1871, '72 and '73, fleeing from bad government. 

The increase in the number of schools from 1870, when 
the state was under the Republican rule, to 1880, when it had 
been six years under the Democratic control, as shown by the 
same census returns was as follows : 

Schools. White. Colored. 

1870 1355 490 

1880 3085 1512 

The census of 1890, now near at hand, w ill show a gratify- 
ing increase in the value of properties held by colored men. 

It may be mentioned as a significant fact that Nathan 
Alexander, recently appointed by President Harrison as Re- 
ceiver of Public Monies at Montgomery, gave a bond of 
$60,000, and it is said that all his bondsmen are colored 
men. They qualified in the sum of $120,000. 

The colored population is progressing everywhere in the 
state — slowly in the black-belt, where the negro predominates; 
much more rapidly in the counties where the whites out- 
number the blacks. Their progress is marked in morality, 
intelligence and property. If the next census shall corrobo- 
rate, as it will, the truth of this observation, viz.: that the 
negro prospers most where the power and influence of the 
white man is greatest, then it is submitted that the fair con- 
clusion is that, though Southern whites do not wish to be 
governed by a black man's party, yet they are, in fact, the 
best friends the negro has. 



gg WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

A careful study of the life of Abraham Lincoln must 
always cause fresh regret to well up in the heart of every 
Southerner as often as he shall recur to the awful deed of his 
assassination. Mr. Lincoln would have left suffrage to the 
states to regulate. Then it would have come to the colored 
man gradually and as he was fitted for it ; and the negro 
would have regarded the Southern white man, who conferred 
it, as his friend. As it was, suffrage came to the colored man 
through an act of Congress. That act would never have 
been passed if the majority of Southern white men had been 
voting with the Republican party. It was passed because 
the colored men were expected to vote against the views of 
the electors legally qualified by state laws. 

To see that the newly-made voters performed this duty the 
Republican party sent gentlemen like Messrs. Wilson and Kel- 
ley down South to tell them that they must all vote together 
for the party that gave them the ballot. Already among them 
were other men, correctly described by Senator Fessenden as 
" adventurers, and broken-down preachers and politicians,'* 
consorting, day and night, with these ignorant freedmen, poi- 
soning their minds against their white neighbors and mustering 
them, with uplifted hands in midnight meetings, into a politi- 
cal league, which, by its very constitution, excluded most of 
the Southern whites. Under these circumstances the domi- 
nation of either a black man's party or a white man's party 
was not to be avoided. 

The facts of history are that the people of Alabama, pros- 
trated by an unsuccessful war, and divided by the bitter 
memories of the past, were very loth to oppose what seemed 
to be the behests of the strongest government man had ever 
seen. They were utterly unable to unite and agree on any 
policy whatever. For six long years they suffered degrada- 
tion, poverty and detraction, before they made up their minds 
to come together to assert, as they finally did, their supreiAacy. 
in numbers, wealth, education and moral power. They have 
now in successful operation a g^overnment that, for the pro- 
tection it affords to the lives, liberties and property of all its 
people, white and black, may safely challenge comparison 
with that of any state in the Union. Education and the 



EECONSTKUCTION IN ALABAMA. 69 

liberalizing iDfluences of the age, to which Alabama is fully 
alive, will gradually, aud surely, and safely solve every prob- 
lem that can arise within her borders if she herself is left to 
deal with them. Will the American people, in the liglit of 
the terrible experience of the past, permit outside influences 
to prevent this consummation ? 

Hilary A. Herbert. 



CHAPTER III. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

THE greatest physical punishment we can inflict upon man 
is death. There is a vast difference in the atrocity of 
crimes which we call capital, but the penalty is the same. 
The man who slays his parent, his child or his brother is 
simply handed, as he is for the murder of a stranger. Hap- 
pily, however, public sentiment superadds something to the 
penalties of such offences, by holding up the perpetrators 
to the execration of mankind. So it is with many offences 
against the social or political laws of civilized communities ; 
for the infraction of which, in the nature of things, no ade- 
quate punishment is provided. The heinousness of such 
offences consists in an element of faithlessness — -a betrayal 
of trust— treachery. 

The destruction of the flock by the shepherd ; the robbing 
of the ward by the guardian ; the scandalizing of religion by 
a dissolute priest — are all crimes which find their most ap- 
propriate puwishment in that public contempt which is 
society's excommunication. 

In this catalogue is to be placed the betrayal of constitutional 
liberty, in its supreme home and by its especial guardians, in 
what is falsely termed the rrconstructicm of the Southern states. 

This was a crime against the principles of free government 
for Avhich no adequate punishment is provided by law. In 
fact, the criminals assumed to be above the law which they 
enacted, and the law itself was the crime. 

The criminals sat in the law-making chamber, on the 
bench and in the jury-box, instead of standing in the dock. 

It is with the hope that at this distance and in these more 
dispassionate times, I -may aid in directing upon that 
70 



EECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 71 

movement at least a portion of that execration which it so 
richly deserves, that I have consented to write this article. 

It is an episode in American history that not only should 
not be forgotten, but which deserves to be studied by every 
considerate patriot in the United States. 

It is not necessary or pertinent to argue the original question 
of the right of a state to secede. In the very brief allusion 
I shall make to the subject,* I propose to treat it from the 
Northern standpoint : as settled, and that such a right never 
existed under the unamended Constitution. With this under- 
standing I shall submit a few observations on the legality and 
propriety of the reconstruction acts of 1867. 

The Southern states, believing they had a right to secede 
and depart from the Union, attempted to do so by repealing 
the ordinances of their conventions by which they had sever- 
ally accepted the Constitution and become members of the 
Union. The remaining states, possessed of the autonomy of 
the Federal Government, said "No, you cannot do that: your 
ordinances of repeal are void ; you are still in the Union and 
subject to the Constitution, and your attempt to maintain the 
validity of your ordinances by force is simply insurrection 
and rebellion, which we are bound by the constitution to sup- 
press.'^ Accordingly they waged war to suppress it and did 
suppress it. The slogan from the day when the first ordinance 
of secession was passed until the firing of the last shot in the 
war, had been the restoration of the Union. That had been 
the cry everywhere when men were appealed to to enlist : — 
*^ Join the army and help restore the Union.'' Was it not re- 
stored when the " rebellion " was suppressed and Lee gave 
up his sword to Grant ? Everybody supposed so then ; but 
yet it seems that Congress thought not, for the eleven states 
were declared by Congress to be out of the Union. Now it is 
well known that during the contest, so great was the aversion 
of the popular mind to the coercing of sovereign states and. 
the invasion of their soil, that nothing but this appeal for re- 
storing the well-beloved Union could have succeeded in filling 
the armies which were necessary to effect it. When that war, 
therefore, was closed, was the Constitution in any way changed? 
Or were the relations of the offending states themselves to the 



72 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Constitotlon and the Union (their guilty officials having been 
supplanted) in the slightest degree altered? Had not the 
Northern idea triumphed ? Was not the Constitution supreme 
over the insurrectionary states ? If so, where were they,— in 
the Union or out of the Union ? There were only two ways 
by which they could possibly have gotten out : — legally, by 
virtue of their ordinances or by force of arras. As the legality 
was denied and the resort to foit;e was a failure, the conclusion 
is unavoidable, that they were in the Union, — subject to all the 
requirements and entitled to all the privileges of the Consti- 
tution. 

Individuals might indeed have been punished if they had 
committed treason, but the states in their corporate capacity 
could commit no wrong and therefore were not subject to pun- 
ishment. Under our theory their existence was immortal, and 
the moment the individuals who had done wrong in the name 
of the state had been disposed of, they moved onward with 
their ancient laws and institutions restored, — subject in the 
language of Justice Nelson, ''only to the new reorganization, 
by the appointment of the proper officers to give them opera- 
tion and eifect.'^ This view was acknowledged and acted u})on 
by the Government in all its branches, from 18G5 to 1867. 
President Johnson (by what authority is not precisely known), 
immediately after the termination of the war, appointed 
temporary Governors for the states, with authority to appoint 
all needful officials] and directed them to call prin:iary con- 
ventions, form Constitutions and reorganize the state govern- 
ments in all their branches ; and he also invited them, under 
their new Constitution, to elect Senators and Representatives 
in Congress in the usual and regular way. This was promptly 
done by North Carolina, and her new government was recog- 
nized by the President. It was also recognized by Congress 
in so far as the submitting of the proposed Constitutional 
amendment to her State Legislature for ratification was a recogr- 
nition. So far also as any cases were brought before it, the 
judicial authority of the United States treated these state 
governments as valid. In the case of Amy Warwick, before 
the United States District Court of Massacusetts, Judge 
Sprague, referring to the supposed effect of the belligerent 



KECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CAROLINA. - 73 

rigliis which it was conceded belonged to the Government 
during the rebellion, by giving it, when suppressed, the rights 
of conquest, used the following language : " This is an error, 
a grave and dangerous error. Belligerent rights cannot be 
exercised where there are no belligerents. Conquest of a 
foreign country giv-es absolute, unlimited sov^ereign rights, but 
no nation ever makes such a conquest of its own territory. 
If a hostile power either from without or within takes and 
holds possession and dominion over any portion of its terri- 
tory, and the nation by force of arms expel or overthrow the 
enemy and suppresses hostilities, it acquires no new title and 
merely regains the possession of that of which it had been 
temporarily deprived. The nation acquires no new sovereignty, 
but merely maintains its previous rights. When the United 
States takes possession of a rebel district they merely vindicate 
their pre-existing title. Under despotic governments, confis- 
cation may be unlimited ; but under our government the right 
of sovereignty over any portion of a state is given and limited 
by the Constitution, and will be the same after the war as it 
was before." If this doctrine be true, and I imagine it will 
not be denied, of course the existing state authorities at the 
time were the only power which the Courts could recognize 
for the administration of law, — for the Constitution had con- 
ferred none in such cases upon the Federal Government. 

Still stronger is the language of Mr. Justice Nelson, of the 
Supreme Court, in the application of James Egan for a habeas 
corpus to be discharged from imprisonment imposed upon 
him by the sentence of a military commission in South Caro- 
lina for an olfence committed within that state. He promptly 
discharged the prisoner and said among other things : " For 
all that appears, the civil, local courts of the State of South 
Carolina were in the full exercise of their judicial functions 
at the time of this trial, as restored by the suppression of the 
rebellion some seven months previously, and by the revival of 
the laws and the reorganization of the state, in obedience to 
and in conformity with its constitutional duties to the Union. 
Indeed, long previous to this, the provisional government had 
been appointed by the President, who is Commander-in-chief 
of the Army and Navy of the United States (and whose will 



74 



WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 



under martial law constituted the only rule of action), for 
the special purpose of changing the existing state of things 
and restoring the civil government over the people. In opera- 
tion of this appointment a new Constitution had been formed, 
a Governor and Legislature elected under it, and the state 
placed in the full enjoyment, or entitled to the full enjoyment 
of allher constitutional rights and privileges. The consti- 
tutional laws of the Union were thereby enjoyed and obeyed, 
and were as authoritative and binding over the people of the 
state as in any other portion of the country. Indeed, the 
moment the rebellion was suppressed and the government 
growino- out of it was subv^erted, the ancient laws resumed 
their accustomed sway, subject only to the new reorganization 
by the appointment of the proper officers to give them opera- 
tion and effect. 

This organization and appointment of public functionaries, 
which was under the superintendence and direction of the 
President, the Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy 
of the country, and who, as such, had previously governed 
the state from imperative necessity by the force of martial 
law, had already taken place, and the necessity no longer 
existed. 

In the language of Mr. Reverdy Johnson, who wrote the 
minority report upon the reconstruction bills : ^' We submit 
that nothing could be more conclusive in favor of the doctrine 
for which they are cited than these judgments," — that is, the 
doctrine that these new state governments were both, de facto 
and de jure, the legal and proper governments of the states 
lately in insurrection. 

Notwithstanding all this. Congress, for purely partisan pur- 
poses, proceeded to treat these states as outside of the Union ; 
and as alien communities who were to be dealt with anew 
under the laws of conquest and admitted to the Union on 
conditions of its own imposing. They happened to be Demo- 
cratic in their politics : and it was not desirable to have the 
Union restored by the admission of eleven Democratic states ; 
that would seriously endanger the Republican party. 

They could not longer refuse to admit them to representa- 
tion in Congress^ which was the obvious constitutional right 



RECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 75 

of these states, but they determined ou couditions which would 
strengthen, not weaken, the Republican party. To do this 
they dissolved the Union by an Act of Congress, declaring that 
as they were out, they should only be readmitted on the 
formation of new constitutions and the adoption of certain 
amendments to the Federal Constitution. They were to be 
placed under military rule, every vestige of civil authority 
was to be abolished, and every civil magistrate displaced. 
Suffrage was to be made universal, except that every citizen 
was to be excluded from all participation in the primary pro- 
ceedings who was proscribed by the proposed Fourteenth 
Amendment. All this was done and more, several years 
after the war had ended, without the slightest provocation on 
the part of the Southern states, save only that they would 
vote the Democratic ticket. 

North Carolina, who had already, in obedience to the 
President's invitation, held a convention and remodeled her 
government in conformity with the changed condition of 
affiiirs, and who had elected a full corps of Federal and State 
officials, became a part of " Military District No. 2.'^ Orders 
from " Headquarters'' in Charleston, South Carolina, dissolved 
her state government, framed after her ancient custom and 
traditions, overturned her laws and displaced her officials. 
Anarchy reigned, tempered only by the will of a military 
satrap. A new convention was called by his authority. 

The negroes were invited to vote, though their suffrage 
was not known to either State or Federal law ; whilst many 
thousands, embracing nearly all of her leading citizens, were 
disfranchised. As the Sepoy troops were commanded by 
British officers, so these ignorant negroes were officered by a 
trained corps of expert thieves and scoundrels who showed 
them how to plunder the helpless whites. 

The excuse given for this legislation was that the states 
lately in insurrection were in a state of complete anarchy, 
entirely without civil law and a republican form of govern- 
ment. Each assertion was a lie so palpable and monstrous, 
that the historian will wonder at the hardihood which in- 
duced men to base momentous' actions upon it 

North Carolina had a republican form of government, ^ 



76 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

framed by a convention of qualified members, who had been 
chosen by her legal electors ; and under tiic Constitution thus 
formed, civil officers of every grade had been elected and 
installed; courts had been opened; justice was everywhere 
administered, and order secured in the usual way. 

In addition to this, her duly chosen Senators and Represen- 
tatives stood waiting for admission at the doors of Congress. 
To deny all this would justify the denial of any event of the 
past. No fact of history is more notorious. Naturally there 
could be no other than the worst of consequences attending a 
procedure thus begun in fraud and false pretence, and sup- 
ported by force. A saturnalia began. Our English-speaking 
race has not known its like since the plunder of Ireland in 
the sixteenth century. Detachments of the army were sta- 
tioned at various points to overawe the people. Almost 
everv citizen of experience of affairs in the state was dis- 
franchised, and over the others hung the threat of confisca- 
tion. Under such circumstances the new convention was 
called by military orders : the qualification of its members, 
its electors, and the persons to hold the elections, the time and 
place, were all prescribed by the same authority. Many of 
the poll-holders were candidates, whilst their associates wero 
negroes who could neither read nor write. 

The returns, instead of being compared in public, as was 
customary, were sealed up and sent to ^Mieadquarters " in 
Charleston, South Carolina. There they were examined in 
secret and the result announced. 

That result was 110 Republicans and 10 Democrats! 

The voting population of the state, as ascertained by the 
census two years afterwards, was 214,222 ; the registration for 
that election in 1868 was 103,060 whites and 71,657 negroes — 
total 174,717. The result shows that about 40,000 were 
either disfranchised or in some other way were deterred from 
voting. 

Of the 110 Republicans who were announced by General 
Canby to be elected and pronounced by the sergeant who kept 
the door to be " duly qualified," were thirteen (13) negroes, 
and eight (8) strangers, who came to be wittily called '^carpet- 
baggers." They were not citizens of the state and were in 



EECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 77 

no way entitled to the privilege of making laws for North 
Carolina ; but they came to officer the negroes and to teach 
loyalty to the whites. The rest were disaffected white natives, 
mostly without property to be taxed or sympathy with their 
race, or regard for the misfortunes of their country. 

The language of the registration oath is a sufficient indica- 
tion of their character. They met in January, 1868, and 
framed a Constitution after those of Ohio, Illinois and other 
Northern states, ignoring much of that of our fathers. 

But little more than thirty days' notice of the election for 
ratification was given. But now comes the most iniquitous part 
of this entire, shameful proceeding. They had succeeded in 
stifling the voice of the people, by enforcing the disfranchising 
clauses of the reconstruction acts. 

Congress went no further, and plainly meant to go no 
further, than to provide the machinery for a primary conven- 
tion as the initial point of the new government. It assumed 
the right to prescribe the qualifi(!ations of the voters that far 
only. To have done so one moment after that conveution 
met would have justified Federal control of the suffrage in 
every state and for all time. Accordingly, the new Constitu- 
tion provided that all males of legal age should both vote 
and be eligible to office, except when convicted of felony. 
But to make sure of their hold on the state and the plunder 
which they meditated, by collusion with the military despot, 
they held the election for state officers at the same time with 
that for ratification, and applied the same disfranchisement to 
both ! In this way at least 40,000 citizens, by a pure fraud, 
were deprived of the right to vote for the Constitution of their 
country and the officers elected under it, although it expressly 
provided in terms that they should vote ! It is difficult to 
imagine a more despotic proceeding, or a precedent more dan- 
gerous to constitutional liberty. Here the foundation was 
laid for all the corruption and misrule which followed. Had 
the suffrage been free and honest, as the organic law required, 
there can be no doubt but that the Legislature at least would 
have represented the property and character of the state and 
both been safe. By this procedure the logical absurdity was 
presented of submitting to the negro the question of his own 



78 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

rio-bt of suffrage. Primarily he was allowed to vote on the 
question. The Constitution permitted the white man to vote, 
but the military orders would not admit him to the polls ; 
whereas the negro's only right to vote was under the Constitu- 
tion which was not yet adopted. 

The white man's right was co-existent with the government. 

The question may be stated, for clearness, thus: The 
white men had the exclusive control of the body politic and 
the right of the suffrage from the foundation of the govern- 
ment — it was his government, for he made it ; the negroes, 
who had no such rigbts, came forward and asked to be ad- 
mitted to equal privileges with the white men. The question 
was decided by the applicants and not by those in whom the 
power to grant the application rested. 

A man desires to become a member of the church ; his 
application is referred not to the authorities of the church, 
but to the candidate himself. By such shameless devices was 
North Carolina reconstructed, and all the base and disrepu- 
table elements of society fastened upon the virtue and intelli- 
gence of the state. What little of wealth the war had spared 
was at the mercy of those whose greed was only equaled by 
the unscrupulous villany which fed it. 

On the 4th of July, 1868, the new government was inaugu- 
rated. With a clean sweep of all the state officials and nearly 
all the counties, and a large majority of the Legislature, and 
backed by the army of the United States, they had it all 
their own way. 

The Senate stood thirty-eight Republicans and twelve 
Democrats. The House stood eighty Republicans to forty 
Democrats. Of the Republicans there were twelve carpet- 
baggers and nineteen negroes — several of whom could not 
read or write. They made loud promises of a new genera- 
tion of progress; and they were soon to bring about "a new 
heavens and a new earth.^' They told how the old order of 
things had been weighted down by slavery, and the poor had 
been oppressed by an aristocracy based upon it ; and they 
declared that their divine mission was to regenerate a vast 
state and awaken the latent energies of a sleeping people and 
develop the hidden resources of buried wealth ! 



EECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 79 

The better to do this, a number of outside carpet-baggers 
were called in to assist in the great work of progress by 
manipulating the negroes and the purchasable whites. Prom- 
inent among these strangers were one Milton S. Littlefield, 
Dewees and others — men whose reputations at home, if they 
ever had a home, entitled them to the contempt of their 
neighbors, and who, in their wanderings in search of plunder 
in the wake of devastating armies, left everywhere behind 
them a stench of foulness and corruption. 

They immediately organized for a raid upon the depleted 
treasury of an impoverished people. It was soon stripped 
of every available dollar ; then the school fund was robbed, 
its investments were sold to pay their per diem^ which was 
spread out indefinitely by their protracted and unusual sit- 
tings. Four hundred and twenty thousand (S420,000) dollars 
of stock in the Wilmington & Weldon and the Wilmington 
& Manchester Railroads, which belonged to the educational 
fund, for the benefit of the poor children of the state, were 
sold by the Republican Treasurer for §158,000; which, with 
§100,000 more, borrowed from the Bank of George W. 
Swepson, was paid for their services, at the rate of eight 
dollars a day, to these negroes and carpet-baggers, who were 
professing to be the especial friends of education. 

But having speedily swept away all that was visible and 
capable of asportation, there remained, unhappily, a still 
greater intangible mine of rich material for plunder in the 
credit of the state. Viewed as a corporation, though her 
fields had been devastated by war and her substance wasted 
by fire, yet that which was left constituted assets of consider- 
able value and gave her obligations a standing in the market. 
Having obtained the power to control these assets and pro- 
vided a rigid guarantee to this end in the Constitution itself, 
they resolved to rob the living and the yet unborn by the 
issue to themseh^es of her promises to pay. 

A ring was formed, the chief of which were the said 
Littlefield and one George W. Swepson, a native, whose 
reputation for integrity was so bad as to make that of Little- 
field tolerable. He was, perhaps, the most adroit agent of 
corruption who was ever known in North Carolina, as was 



80 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

evidenced by the way in which he manipidated lawyers, 
legislators and juda^es. This ring demanded, and in most 
cases received, ten (10) per cent, on all ai)propriatious passed 
by that Legislature, and it was notoriously nnderstood that 
none, however meritorious, could pass Avithout the payment 
of this tithe, and that any, however outrageous, could pass 
upon its payment. With this arrangement, Littlefield, De- 
wees, Laflin and others bought the Legislature, giving orders 
upon Swepson, who acted as treasurer of the corruption fund. 
Lavish entertainments were given and paid for in the same 
way ; a regular bar was established in the Capitol, and it was 
said that, with somewhat less publicity, some of its rooms 
were devoted to the purposes of prostitution. Decency fled 
abashed ; the spectacle of coarse, ignorant negroes sitting at 
table, drinking champagne and smoking Havana cigars, was 
not uncommon. I cannot refrain, in this connection, from 
telling a story which I have heard of one old *' Cuffy,'^ who 
was a member of that body, and a shining light in the move- 
ment of progress — one who, in the language of Mr. Hoar, 
had his ''face turned toward the morning light.'' A friend, 
going to see him one night at his rooms, found him sitting at 
a table, by the dim light of a tallow dip, laboriously counting 
a pile of money, and chuckling to himself "Why," said his 
visitor, "what amuses you so, Uncle CufTy ?" "Well, boss," 
he replied, grinning from ear to ear, "I 's been sold in my 
life 'leven times, an', fo' de Lord, dis is de fust time I eber 
got de money ! " 

Railroad companies were chartered right and left, and the 
friends and members of the thieving-guild were made presi- 
dents, directors and treasurers. When the booty was not 
likely to go round and give each one a fair divide, existing 
railroads were cut in two and old ones revived on paper. 

Bonds were issued for the stock of the state in all these 
projects, and they were issued at once and in full, without 
limitations or conditions, and without any proper requirement 
that the private stock should be bona fide. 

In this way, in less than four months the Legislature 
authorized the issuing of bonds of the state to the extent of 
$2 e5,3 50,000. In addition to this, bonds had been issued for 



RECONSTRUCTION IN NORTH CAROLINA. gl 

various other schemes of minor importance, whilst the old 
debt of the state, including accumulated interest, was at least 
$16,000,000. The whole debt thus imposed upon our people 
exceeded §42,000,000; whilst the whole property of the 
state assessed for taxation in our then impoverished condition 
barely reached $120,000,000. In 1860, when the taxables of 
the state were assessed at $292,000,000, the total amount of 
taxes collected for state purposes was $543,000. In 1870 the 
taxables were assessed at $130,000,000, and the amount of 
taxes collected was $1,160,000 — more than double the amount 
upon less than half the property ; and this, too, without the 
payment of interest upon the state debt. They had provided 
carefully for obtaining as high a price as possible for these 
bonds, by bulling them in the Constitution itself. 

They knew that the crash would inevitably come, and took 
all possible means of filling their pockets before it arrived. 
That inevitable end came sooner than they thought. 

The old saying, that ^i Whom the gods wished to destroy 
they first made mad/^ was literally fulfilled. Rashly confi- 
dent of their security for a number of years, there was no 
extremity of excess to which they did not go. It is safe to 
say that there was not a transaction, routine or otherwise, con- 
nected with the administration of the government in which 
there was not more or less of corruption. 

The county authorities, emulating the example of the state, 
began a system of plunder in their municipal credit and 
plunged many of them so deeply in debt, that some of the 
wealthiest in the state had their script hawked on the streets 
at ten (10) cents on the dollar. Many of the bonds of the 
state were paid out in fabulous sums to lawyers and in some 
cases even to judges. Hundreds of thousands were gambled 
away in New York, and a noted courtesan of that city ex- 
hibited $100,000 of these bonds which she said she received 
from a railroad president. 

The administration of justice was conducted but little bet- 
ter than the legislation of the state. It may without exag- 
geration be termed scandalous. A majority of the judges 
were either ignorant or corrupt. In fact, reconstruction pro- 
cesses had so winnowed the people, as to leave but very few 

6 



g2 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

lawyers of learning and integrity in the ranks of the Repub- 
lican party from which to choose judges. 

Several of them were known as $20 lawyers — that is, 
men who had never studied law, but had obtained a 
license to practice upon proof of good character and the 
payment of §20. Several of them were notoriously cor- 
rupt. In a short time a large petition, signed by both Dem- 
ocratic and Republican lawyers, was presented to the Legis- 
ture asking for the removal of one for incompetency ; whilst 
another resigned to escape impeachment. 

It scarcely seems credible, and yet it is true, that with this 
$25,000,000 of bonds authorized to be issued, $14,000,000 
of which were actually issued, not one mile of railroad was 
built in the state. That, with all the school fund which the 
state had left from the war, supplemented as it was by a con- 
siderable taxation for school purposes, not one child in the 
state, white or black, was educated in any public school for 
two years. Not one public building or charitable institution 
of any kind was built. No single thing was done to sustain 
the credit of the state or to improve the condition of the peo- 
ple. They simply sank the state as low in the scale of pro- 
gress as could possibly be done short of universal ruin. 

To all of this, and more than my pen can possibly describe, 
the people of North Carolina submitted with long-suffering 
patience. They were spirit-broken by the results of the war — 
the desolation of their homes and the slaughter of their sons. 
They were worn down to the earth by the degradation im- 
posed upon them by the negro-equality of the Civil Rights 
Bill and all the racking evils of the times. But a day was 
coming when their ancient Spirit was once more to re-assert 
itself. That Legislature which had robbed them of their sub- 
stance, finally attempted to rob them of their vital liberties. 

Under the pretence of suppressing internal disorders, it 
passed a bill known as the Sohoffaer Act, by which the Gov- 
ernor of the state was authorized to declare any county in his 
discretion to be in a state of insurrection ; to proclaim martial 
law over it, and to arrest summarily and try by a drum-head 
court all accused persons. To enable him to execute this law, 
he was authorized to raise two regiments of soldiers, to be 



KECONSTEUCTION IN NORTH CAEOLINA. 83 

used at his discretion. This he pro(;eeded to do. One regi- 
ment was composed of negroes enlisted in the eastern conn- 
ties; the other was composed of supposed white men from the 
mountains of East Tennessee and North Carolina, — deserters, 
renegades and cut-throats, for the most part, — under the com- 
mand of one Kirk, of infamous memory. This vile and ill- 
assorted crew descended from the mountains and repaired to 
Raleigh to be armed and equipped, spreading terror as they 
went. They were dispatched to the counties of Orange, Ala- 
mance and Caswell, where they immediately proceeded to 
make quite a number of arrests. A court-ma'-tial was con- 
vened for the trial of the prisoners. All this in a time of 
profound peace. The whole country took alarm and began 
to blaze. The quiet pride of old North Carolina could stand 
the plunder of her substance, but would not endure the de- 
privation of trial by jury. The writ of habeas corpus was 
instantly applied for, to Chief Justice Pearson, who granted 
it readily, but with instructions to the marshal endorsed upon 
it, that if the Governor, upon whom it was to be served, should 
refuse to obey, he was to make return of that fact to him. 
Upon his intimation, Governor Holden of course declined to 
obey, whereupon the chief justice quietly declared that the 
power of the judiciary was exhausted, notwithstanding the 
fact that there was a statute authorizing him to summon the 
posse Gomitafus in aid of the execution of his own writs. A 
sad commentary on our condition indeed, when a great and 
learned judge should so far yield to the disorders of the times 
as to shrink from the performance of a solemn duty in this 
way. 

It was w^ith the greatest difficulty that the cooler- headed 
men of the state restrained the impetuous youth ; but they 
did. Happily an election for attorney-general and members 
of the Legislature was approaching, and would be held in the 
ensuino* Auo-ust of 1870. All violence was averted in the 
hope that the offending Governor and exhausted judiciary 
would hear the voice of the people, if they would not hear 
the voice of conscience. And it was so. 

Although troops were stationed in various points of the 
state to intimidate the voters, and though Governor Holden 



84 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

was assured by public dispatches of the support of President 
Grant, and though leading editors and public men were ar- 
rested or threatened with arrest, yet the peo})le went to the 
polls with a calmness and a determination never equaled in 
our state. The disfranchised white citizens had then their 
first chance at the ballot-box, whilst hundreds and thousands 
of the better sort of Republicans voted with them. 

The state was redeemed amidst the thankful prayers of all 
honest men. The Legislature was largely Democratic, and it 
proceeded promptly to repeal all obnoxious legislation — that 
including the issue of bonds, and the Schoffner Act in par- 
ticular — and to the impeachment of the Governor. 

Reconstruction and its outrages were at an end in North 
Carolina. Its consequences, alas ! were not so easily effaced. 
That great debt still hangs as a cloud over our people, threat- 
ening their credit and retarding their prosperity. The com- 
pensation for all these ills which we suffered we hope to reap 
from the lessons which suffering ever teaches. I am also in 
the hope that this recital of these unhappy events may tend 
in some degree to soften the opinion and mitigate the judg- 
ment of many of my impartial countrymen in the Northern 
portion of our Union towards the people of North Carolina 
and their conduct in the ordeal through which they they have 
passed ; as well as upon that unfinished journey which is 
before them, so thickly beset with the disturbing results of 
civil war. 

Zebulon B. Yance. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 

WHEN" the acts of March 2d and March 23(1, for the recon. 
struction of the late Confederate States were passed, 
the Governor of South Carolina was the Hon. James 
L. Orr, a man of great ability and sagacity, and of well- 
known conservative views, who afterwards held high position 
in the Republican party. 

The first step by the new citizens in the process of recon- 
struction was the election of delegates to a convention called 
to meet in January, 1868, in Charleston, for the purpose of 
framing a state Constitution. It was composed of thirty-four 
whites and sixty-three blacks. At the time, the body was 
said to be made up of Northern adventurers. Southern rene- 
gades, and ignorant negroes. Many of the members of the 
convention afterwards became prominent in the Legislature, 
in state offices, and in Congress, and the reader, as he follows 
these pages, which give some account of their actings and 
doings, can form his own opinion as to whether the above 
description is true of those of whom it was spoken. 

The constitution was adopted in April, 1868, by the votes 
of the negroes upon whom the right to vote had not then 
been conferred, either by the Constitution of the state or 
United States; and whose right to vote at all, upon anything, 
so far as state authority was concerned, was the very question 
to be settled by the Constitution which they themselves voted 
to adopt. For while the reconstruction acts of Congress 
assumed to confer the elective franchise upon the negro, the 
Fifteeuth Amendment-. to the Constitution, which, in the 
words of the proclamation of President Grant, "makes at 
once four millions of people voters,'' was ratified on March 
30th, 1870. 

85 



86 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The Republicans named as their candidate for Governor, 
General R. K. Scott, of Ohio, who was one of the officers of 
the Freedraen's Bureau in the state, and the Conservatives, 
as then called, embracing tiie reputable tax-payers of the state, 
nominated the Hon. W. D. Porter, of (■harleston. Mr. 
Porter was a gentleman of liberal views, of the highest in- 
tegrity and ability, and had long been recognized as one of 
the foremost citizens of the state. If the newly-fledged citi- 
zens had desired that public affairs should be honestly and 
wisely administered, they could have chosen no better man. 
Instead of that, General Scott was elected by a majority of 
two to one, and he and his associates ,took office under the 
new Constitution on July 9th, 1868. 

The General Assembly, then elected, consisted of seventy- 
two whites and eighty-five colored members. In the Senate 
were seven Democrats, in the House fourteen ; the remaining 
one hundred and thirty-six were Republican F. J. Moses, 
Jr., a white man, a nativ^e of the state, whose character is 
properly delineated in the words of Governor Ciiamberlain, 
quoted hereafter, was chosen Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

With the inauguration of Governor Scott and the meeting 
of the General Assembly elected with him began the recon- 
struction legislation of South Carolina. 

Mr. James S, Pike, late Minister of the United States at 
the Hague, a Republican and an original abolitionist, Avho 
visited the state in 1873, after five years' supremacy by Scott 
and his successor, Moses, and their allies, has published a 
pungent and instructive account of public affairs during that 
trying time, under the title of "The Prostrate State.'' The 
most significant of the striking features of this book is that 
he undertakes to write a correct history of the state by di- 
viding the principal frauds, already committed or then in 
process of completion, into eight distinct classes, which he 
enumerates as follows : — 

1. Those wdiich relate to the increase of the state debt. 

2. The frauds practiced in the purchase of lauds for the 

freed men. 

3. The railroad frauds. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 87 

4. The election frauds. 

5. The frauds practiced in the redemption of the notes of 

the Bank of South Carolina. 

6. The census fraud. 

7. The fraud in furnishing the legislative chamber. 

8. General and legislative corruption. 

That is one way, and a very good one, to treat the subject 
to be discussed. I will not do this, however, but will en- 
deavor to give a brief account of some of the more important 
events as they occurred under each administration, in a some- 
what chronological order. 

A law providing for the holding of the next general elec- 
tion was naturally among the first things that received legis- 
lative attention. 

The act passed contained fifty-seven sections and was well 
devised for its purpose. Its four chief features were : 

1. Providing for the appointment by the Governor of the 
three Commissioners of Election for each county, who were 
authorized to appoint all the managers at the various polling 
precincts. 

2. Failure to provide by law either for the number or 
location of the voting precincts in the state, and leaving with 
the Commissioners of each county the absolute power to 
designate the number of precincts in their respective counties, 
at any place and at any time, even on the day of election, and 
that without any notice to the voters. 

3. Failure to provide that the voters should be sworn by 
the managers when they presented themselves to vote. 

4. The omission of any penalty whatever for the violation 
of the election law by illegal voting or repeating. 

As the Commissioners were usually candidates themselves ; 
as they fixed the polling precincts most convenient for their 
own party and most inconvenient for their opponents ; as 
Governor Scott refused upon application to appoint one Com- 
missioner from the opposition, and as the Republican General 
Committee refused to permit a committee composed of mem- 
bers of both political parties to watch the ballot boxes until 
the vote was counted ; the prospects of a fair and honest elec- 
tion were necessarily dim and discouraging. 



gg WHY TflE SOLID SOUTH? 

An act was passed in 1869, defining the civil rights of the 
new citizens, which contained one or more very noticeable 
features. After defining what the rights and privileges of 
the colored man should be on railroads, in theatres and other 
public places, it changed the long established rule of evidence 
that all men shall be considered innocent until proved guilty, 
and expressly enacted, that if the person whose rights under 
the act were alleged to have been denied, happened to be 
colored, then the burden of proof should be on the defendant ; 
so that any person or corporation named in the act, if simply 
accused by a person of color, was thereby to be presumed to 
be guilty and was liable to be subjected to heavy penalties, 
upon this mere accusation, without a particle of proof from 
the plaintiff or any other witness. 

The prosecuting officers of the state were specially directed 
by the statute to ''rigorously'' enforce the provisions of this 
law, under pain of heavy fines and forfeitures. 

Immediately upon the inauguration of the' new officials and 
the meeting of the General Assembly was begun that system 
of extravagance, profligacy and corruption which ruled almost 
unhindered through the entire eight years of Republican 
domination in the state, which made South Carolina notorious 
throughout this whole country and drove the res})ectable peo- 
ple of the state almost to despair. 

There is great difficulty in portraying in an interesting way 
the true condition of public affairs at this period of the state's 
history. The whole Government and every part of it was so 
rotten and the corruption so great and all-pervading that the 
simple recital of the facts soon dulls the sensibilities and 
wearies the indignation of the reader and he is tempted to 
turn away in disgust. 

Without attempting to give in detail the many acts of cor- 
ruption that marked the career of the Republican adminis- 
tration, let me mention some of the more prominent by way 
of examples of the whole. 

When the Republicans first met in Legislative Assembly in 
1868 thev used the same buildiup; which the whites had occu- 
pied before them and furnished the halls in an inexpensive 
manner and one best suited to the impoverished condition of 



KECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA, 89 

the state. As soon, however, as they were more firmly fixed 
in ]30wer and became more accustomed to making appro- 
priations from public funds they exhibited most luxurious 
taste. They undertook to furnish anew the halls of legisla- 
tion in the State House. For clocks that cost five dollars 
two years previous they substituted in 1871 and '72 clocks at 
six hundred dollars : for forty cent spittoons, eight dollar cus- 
pidors : for four dollar l)enches, two hundred dollar crimson 
sofas : for one dollar chairs, sixty dollar crimson plush gothic 
chairs : for ten dollar desks, one hundred and seventy-five 
dollar desks : for four dollar looking-glasses, six hundred 
dollar mirrors, etc., etc. 

The entire bill for furnishing the Hall of the House of 
Representatives was over $50,000, and the Legislature think- 
ing that entirely too small appropriated $95,000, to pay for it. 
Within the past year this hall has been nicely furnished 
anew at an expense of $3,061. 

The total amount paid out for furniture alone in four years 
was over $200,000, and in 1877 when this question was in- 
vestigated there remained in the State House only $17,715, 
worth as appraised at the prices originally charged for it. At 
least forty bed-rooms were furnished at the expense of the 
state, and some of these as often as three times. 

Another item of expense was designated "supplies, sundries 
and incidentals'' and this amounted in one session of the 
Legislature to $350,000. Of this sum $125,000 was spent 
in maintaining a restaurant in one of the committee rooms of 
the Capitol, including liquors and cigars to which all officials 
and their friends helped themselves without cost except to the 
tax-payers. This restaurant or bar-room was kept open every 
day for six years, from eight o'clock in the morning till three 
o'clock the following morning. 

While legislation was pending in the United States Congress 
to take the census of 1870 the General Assembly of South 
Carolina, by way of showing a want of confidence in the 
ability or fairness of the same party in Washington, provided 
for a census of the state under state authority. Of course 
it was not so elaborate as the United States census but while 
the total cost of the extensive work done by the latter, except 



90 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the mere compilation in the census office, was $43,203.13, 
the tax payers. of South Carolina, for a perfectly useless enu- 
meration had to pay $75,524 00. 

Many years prior to the late war South Carolina established 
a State Bank whose bills the state was bound to redeem. 

In proceedings in Court, begun in Charleston, against the 
Bank subsequent to the late war, advertisement was made ex- 
tensively over the country for about eighteen months for all 
holders of these bills to present them to the Court, and less than 
$500,000 were presented under this order and adv^ertisement. 

The Legislature then came forward and appointed a com- 
mittee to count these bills with a view of having them funded 
in state bonds. 

To the absolute astonishment of every body, Avhat the Court 
had found to be $500,000 of Bank bills, this committee re- 
ported to be $1,258,550, and under an act of the General 
Assembly of September 15, 1868, bonds of the state were 
issued to the amount of $1,590,000 to redeem these bills. In 
the words of Mr. Pike, above quoted : "By this one simple 
operation the state thus ai)pears to have been defrauded of a 
round million." 

It was generally alleged and credited that most of the state 
officials, as well as members of the legislature were holders 
of these bills. Governor Scott himself being interested to 
the extent of $50,000 or $60,000. Joseph Crews, one mem- 
ber of the legislative committee appointed to count the bills, 
deposited $30,000 of them in a bank in Columbia soon after 
the bonds were issued, and when the bills ought to have been, 
and the public supposed they had been destroyed. 

Among other measures to which attention was given by the 
General Assembly during Scott's first administration was one 
of an apparently humane purpose, and if it had been honestly 
and prudently carried out might have produced some benefi- 
cial results. This was the establishment of the Land Com- 
mission, the alleged object of which was to buy homes for 
the homeless, and for this purpose the Legislature appropriated 
in March 1869, $200,000 and in March 1870, $500,000. 

One not thoroughly acquainted with the character of the 
public officials of the state at that time might suppose that 



KECONST RUCTION IN SOUTH CAEOLINA. 91 

while they would rob the state and fleece the tax-payers they 
would spare the poor ignorant and homeless negroes for 
whose benefit this money was appropriated and by whose 
votes these officials obtained the power to plunder the state 
and insult and over-ride her decent people. 

From official sources it appears that $802,137.44 was 
spent by the land commission, and that with this sum was 
purchased 112,404 acres of land. There were a few cases in 
which the land was good and the prices probably fair, but the 
character of the majority, both as to quality and price, may be 
gathered from the report of an investigation made by a com- 
mittee of the Republican Legislature. One sand bed of 6,918 
acres not worth $1 per acre was bought for $44,418 : one 
tract of 3,200 acres worth about §1,500 was bought for §19,- 
5 )0 and another large tract known as Hell-hole Swamp, was 
bought for §26,100 and charged to the state at §120,000. 
These lands as a whole were so utterly worthless that to have 
supported one able-bodied freedman upon them would have 
bean regarded as the greatest of agricultural achievements. 
JSTo motive except that of public plunder can be assigned for 
purchases of this kind unless the then land commissioner 
thought to settle the negro question in South Carolina by 
starving him to death. 

During Governor Scott's first term he did not omit to put in 
operation every engine which ingenuity could suggest to secure 
his renominatiou and re-election as his own immediate successor. 

On March 1st, 1870, he approved an act of the General 
Assembly for the government of general elections. Unlike 
the act of 1868, it required that the voters should be sworn 
before voting and provided a penalty for illegal voting. It 
is remarkable however for three things: 

1. It failed to make provision for the registration of v^oters 
as expressly required by the Constitution, and as had been 
done in the act of 1868. 

2. It failed as in the previous act to fix either the number 
or places of the election precincts in any county, and left it 
entirely in the power of the commissioners of election of each 
county to designate any number and any places as precincts for 
holding the election, on any day before the electioUj or even 



92 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ou the very day Itself, aud without any uotlce whatever to 
the voters. 

3. It failed to provide for the public counting of the votes 
at the close of the polls, and expressly gave the managers power 
to take the boxes and votes and hold them for three days before 
returning them to the commisioners of election to be counted, 
and to these commissioners it gave the power to hold the 
boxes and ballots for ten days before declaring the result. 

In a report made by Judge Poland, a prominent and able 
Kepublican of Vermont, as chairman on the part of the 
House, of a Congressional committee appointed in March 
1871, to investigate the condition of the late Confederate states, 
is found this comment on the election laws of South Carolina. 

'' The election law of the state is one which could not be 
better calculated to produce frauds by affording the facilities 
to commit and conceal them, and tempted by these facilities we 
cannot doubt that in many instances they were cuaimittcd." 

On March 16th, 1869^ the Governor approved "An Act 
to Organize and Govern the Militia of the State of South 
Carolina," which made provision for the organization of the 
militia into regiments, battalions, etc , as the Governor might 
deem expedient. It then provided that there should be no 
military organizations or formations for the purpose of arm- 
ing, drilling, exercising the manual of arms, or military 
manoeuvres not authorized by the act and by the Commander- 
in-Chief, and subjected any citizen violating this act to pun- 
ishment in the penitentiary, at hard labor, for not less than 
one nor more than three years. Under this act the Governor 
refused to receive any but colored companies. The penalties 
for exercising the manual of arms were intended to, and did, 
prohibit any but those whom he authorized from enjoying 
this privilege. 

On February 8th, 1869, an act was passed authorizing the 
Governor to employ an armed force, who were to be mounted 
and fully equipped ; and on the 16th of the same month he 
was empowered "to purchase two thousand stand of arms." 

In 1870 Governor Scott was renominated by the regular 
Kepublicau convention, and R. B. Carpenter, himself a Re- 
publican, then regarded as among the ablest and most avail- 



EECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 93 

able of the new statesmen, was nominated by the ^^ Reform 
Party," composed of the whites and dissatisfied Repnblicans. 

Governor Scott, becoming apprehensive as to his reelection, 
soon made apparent the motives that had prompted the pass- 
age of the four acts of the General Assembly above specified. 

Ninety-six thousand colored men were enrolled in military 
companies throughout the state, the simple enrollment costing 
the state over $200,000 ; the Governor in this way furnishing 
employment and compensation to his political "strikers" and 
''heelers" at public expense. The Adjutant General, F. J. 
Moses, Jr., bought one thousand Winchester Rifles for about 
$38,000, and one million "central fire copper cartridges" at 
a cost of $37,000. On the order of the Governor the Adju- 
tant General went to Washington and procured ten thousand 
Springfield muskets from the general government, thus an- 
ticipating for years in advance the state's quota of arms. 
Tliese he had changed to breech loaders, which, with altera- 
tions in the accoutrements and the purchase above referred to, 
cost $180,750. Of which Moses, by his own confession, 
through fraud, was to get $10,000. It was all charged to the 
state at $250,000. 

There were only two or three white companies in the state, 
and they were ordered by Governor Scott to surrender their 
arms and disband ; and fourteen full regiments of negroes 
were oro^anized before the election. These were fullv armed 
and equipped and ammunition issued to them, as upon the 
eve of battle. 

When called out on duty they were to be paid under the 
act, and were, in truth, paid the same compensation as officers 
and soldiers of the same grade in the Regular Army ; and it 
was held by the authorities of the state at the time, that when 
they were attending political meetings in advocacy of Scott's 
election, they were "on service" within the meaning of the 
statute. Before a committee of the Legislature, ex-Governor 
Moses testified as follows with reference to organizing the 
militia: "The militia was organized and armed for political 
purposes by the advice and consent of Governor Scott, and I 
was commissioned by Governor Scott to proceed to Washing- 
ton and procure all the arms and accoutrements possible from 



94 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the United States Goverumeut, and at the same time purchase 
ammunition and make the contract referred to. The object 
was to arm and organize the militia for the campaign in 
1870.'^ 

The "armed force/' or constabulary, was organized and 
maintained for the same purpose. I quote from two of the 
reports made by deputies to the chief constable. On June 
25th, 1870, J. W. Anderson, deputy constable, says: "We 
can carry the county (York County) if we get constables 
enough, by encouraging the militia and frightening the poor 
white men. I am going into the campaign for Scott." 

On July 8th, 1870, Joseph Crews, deputy constable for 
Laurens County, says : " We are going to have a hard cam- 
paign up here, and we must have more constables. I will 
carry the election here with the militia if the constables will 
work with me. I am giving out ammunition all the time. 
Tell Scott he is all right here now." 

John B. Hubbard, the chief constable, testified before a 
legislative committee, in 1877 : "It was understood that by 
arming the colored militia and keeping some of the most 
influential officers under pay, that a full vote would be 
brought out for the Republicans, and the Democracy, or many 
of the weak-kneed Democrats intimidated. At the time the 
militia was organized there was but, coinparatively speaking, 
little lawlessness. The militia, being organized and armed, 
caused an increase of crime and bloodshed in most of the 
counties in proportion to their numbers and the number of 
arms and amount of ammunition furnished them." Again, the 
chief constable says: "Ostensibly the object of the con- 
stabulary force was for the preservation of the peace, but in 
reality it was organized and used for political purposes and 
ends. Governor Scott would order me to send men to any 
county where the Republican party most needed encourage- 
ment and reorganization. The deputies were authorized and 
instructed to attend all political meetings and report the po- 
litical condition of the county to me, and I would report the 
same to the Governor." 

Of the constables thus employed twenty were elected to 
the Legislature or to county offices. They were paid by the 



KECONSTRUCTIOX IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 95 

state their mileage and -per diem while they overrode the 
white people of the state and made sure of the election of 
Scott and themselves to office. 

In 1869 of 506 convicts in the State Penitentiary 136 
were pardoned, and in 1870, the year of the election, of 575 
there were 205 pardoned, so that in one year more than one- 
third of all the criminals in the penitentiary were turned out 
by the Gov^ernor to prey again upon the people. 

Governor Scott spent §374,000 of the funds of the state in 
his canvass, and by means of this and the convincing powerof 
armed militia, state constables and pardoned convicts, he beat 
his opponent over 30,000 votes and was thus enabled to in- 
flict himself for a second term upon the state. 

In 1870 the appropriations by the General Assembly had 
reached a very extravagant sum and Governor Scott vetoed 
a bill for legislative expenses, in which he uses the following 
language : " I regard the money already appropriated daring 
this session, and the sum included in this bill, amounting in 
the aggregate to $100,000, as simply enormous for one ses- 
sion. It is beyond the comprehension of any one, how the 
General Assembly could legitimately expend one-half that 
amount of money." This was most unusual conduct on the 
part of the Governor, and so far as I can remember or have 
learned, is the only occasion in which he was ever seized 
with a spasm of virtue or exhibited any indignation at the 
conduct of the Legislature. Neither before nor after this 
was there ever the slightest adumbration of such a spirit. 

In 1871 it was discovered that the Financial Board had 
illegally issued several millions of state bonds, and it was 
determined by some members of the Legislature that Parker, 
the treasurer of the state, and Scott the Governor, both of 
whom were members of this board, should be impeached for 
high crimes and misdemeanors. When these proceedings 
were about to be successfully carried through the House of 
Representatives, Scott became very much alarmed, and in 
order to save himself from tlie disgrace of being impeached 
he sent for two of his political associates and issued to them 
three warrants upon the armed force fund, leaving the 
amount blank, to be filled in by any sum the holders deemed 



96 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

necessary. These three certificates were afterwards filled up 
so as to aggregate $48,645, and with this amount of money 
these two associates of the Governor, by bribing members of 
the Legislature, were enabled to prevent the passage of the 
resolution of impeachment. During the proceedings it be- 
came necessary to obtain some rulings from the Speaker of 
the House, and in order to secure these the member who 
made the motion on which the rulings were based was paid 
$500 for his services and to Speaker Moses they paid $15,000. 
The warrants drawn and signed by the Governor were all made 
out in the names of fictitious persons and these names were 
indorsed upon them and the money drawn from the treasury 
of the state. It was understood, of course, at the time that 
the names were fictitious and that the money was to be used 
for the purpose of buying the votes of members of the Legis- 
lature to prevent the impeachment. 

The policy of South Carolina for some years before the 
war had been to give state aid to railroad enterprises, and as 
a consequence she had become directly and financially inter- 
ested in several of the principal roads of the state. 

To rob the state of the most valuable of this property and 
convert it by " due process of law '^ into their own pockets, 
Governor Scott, John J. Patterson and others of their asso- 
ciates, inaugurated some schemes which did not reach their 
full fruition until Scott's second term. Let me mention two 
cases. 

In 1868 the Legislature passed an Act authorizing the 
issue of $4,000,000 of bonds of the Blue Ridge Railroad 
Company, then constructed for a distance of about thirty 
miles, guaranteeing their payment and reserving a lien on 
the road and its franchises to save the state from loss. At 
the same session it passed a similar act authorizing the Green- 
ville and Columbia Railroad to issue $2,000,000 of bonds 
guaranteed by the state and reserving a statutory lien on the 
road to save the state harmless. 

The stock of the Blue Ridge Railroad was owned princi- 
pally by the state and the city of Charleston, and was con- 
trolled by the Governor of the state and the Mayor of that 
city; and shortly after the guarantee by the state of the 



EECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 97 

$2,000,000 of bonds of the Greenville and Columbia Rail- 
road its stock was bought up by John J. Patterson (subse- 
quently United States Senator), Governor Scott and other 
state and legislative officers. 

21,698 shares of this stock were owned by the state which, 
in 1869, was valued by the controller at |433,960.00. A 
bill was passed through the Legislature by bribery and the 
procurement of these officials for the sale of the state stock, 
which was approved March L, 1870, and the next day with- 
out advertisement or notice to the public they became the 
purchasers for §59,669.50, all of .which was paid out of funds 
of the state by an understanding with and the manipulation 
of H. H. Kimpton, the financial agent of the state in New 
York. This stock did not cost the purchasers one cent. 

After this ring thus became the owners of the Greenville 
and Columbia Railroad the Legislature released the two 
roads, the Blue Ridge and the Greenville and Columbia, 
from all liability on account of the bonds issued under the 
former acts, and left the state vv ith a debt of $6,000,000 from 
this source and nothing whatever to show for it. 

As the years went by and the management of public aflPairs 
for private gain became the settled and acknowledged policy 
of the state there grew up three regular combinations amongst 
the higher officials of the state, designated as the '^ Bond 
Riuo;" the " Leo^islative Rino;'' and the " Printino^ Ring:.'^ 
The first of these had its foundation in the following legisla- 
tion : Not long after Governor Scott entered upon his first 
term as Governor the Legislature provided for the creation of 
a Financial Board, and for the appointment of a Financial 
Agent in New York. The agent appointed w^as one H. H. 
Kimpton. Pie had no reputation warranting his selection 
for such a responsible trust ; he gave no security and there 
appears to have been no contract made with him as to the 
amount of his compensation. He was entrusted during about 
two years' operations with §2,700,000 of state bonds and the 
interest and other charges, not including his commissions, 
amounted in one year to §94,777.42, or $7,914.78 per month, 
which made the funds advanced to the state cost about seven- 
teen per cent, per annum over and above his commissions. 

7 



98 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

All the risk and expense of this agency for the first two 
years of its existence resulted in the sale of $1,000,000 worth 
of bonds at the moderate figure of seventy cents on the dollar, 
and the cost of effecting this net result in that time was cer- 
tainly as much as $159,974.13 and how greatly in excess of 
that it is impossible to ascertain. In his report of September 
30th, 1872, which appears to be the last made by him, we 
find that he sold in September of that year $4,214,500 of 
South Carolina bonds for $1,238,344 and that on the balance 
of $1,627,075.63 in his hands October 1st, 1871, his interest 
and commission charges for one year amounted to $382,- 
936.68. 

It is impossible to ascertain or state fully the management 
or manipulation of the finances of the state through the 
agency of this man Kimpton. Before a Legislative com- 
mittee he acknowledged "the incorrectness of his accounts, 
and admitted that he was directed by the financial board not 
to make real but fictitious entries; so frightfully large were 
the expenses of the transactions of the agency, in negotiations 
of loans, etc., the board thought it best to keep the true 
amounts in disguise.'' 

Mr. Pike in his " Prostrate State," speaking of the state 
finances in 1873 says: " But, as the treasury of South Caro- 
lina has been so thoroughly gutted by the thieves who have 
hitherto had possession of the state government, there is 
nothing left to steal. The note of any negro in the state is 
worth as much on the market as a South Carolina bond. It 
would puzzle even a Yankee carpet- bagger to make anything 
out of the office of State Treasurer under the circumstances." 

During the six years from 1868 to 1874 that Scott was 
the governor of the state, F. J. Moses, Jr., was the speaker of 
the House of Representatives. 

His chief mode of illegally procuring public funds was by 
the issue of pay certificates, which under the law the presid- 
ing officers of the two houses of the General Assembly were 
authorized to issue for the payment of the salaries of the 
members and senators and attaches of the two Houses. Out 
of this power and the constant exercise of it grew up what 
was familiarly known as the *^ Legislative Ring." 



EECONSTEUCTION IN SOUTH CAKOLINA. 99 

This "Ring" was composed of the presiding officers and 
clerks of the House and Senate together with the state Treas- 
urer and some minor officials. These certificates could be 
issued legally only for the payment of members and attaches 
of the General Assembly, but soon it became the regular 
means by which the members of this ring kept even with 
their associates of the other rings in the general plundering 
of the state. Eight porters were employed in the State 
House and certificates issued to 238 : 10 messengers employed 
and certificates issued to 140 at one session, and 212 at 
another: 8 laborers and 5 to 10 pages were actually in service 
while certificates were issued to 159 laborers and 124 pages. 
Of one lot of 150 certificates nominally given to clerks not 
one was legal. During one session pay certificates were 
issued amounting to $1,168,255. All of which, except $200,- 
000 was pure and untarnished robbery. 

Moses admitted under oath that at the request of Jno. J. 
Patterson, he had issued at one time to the latter who was not 
a member of the General Assembly, $30,000.00 in certificates 
upon his paying to him $10,000 in money therefor. 

If any one of these three chief ^^ rings'' that controlled 
the public purse and managed the state's affairs in those 
days was more audacious than its co-operative rings it was 
the '^ Printing Ring." 

This like the others was composed chiefly of state officers, 
the Governor, Attorney-General and others being members. 

The total cost of printing in South Carolina for the 8 years 
of Republican domination, 1868 to 1876, was $1,326,589.00. 
Total for printing for 78 years previous^ 1790 to 1868, was 
$609,000.00 ; showing an excess for cost of printing in 8 
years over 78 years previous of $717,589.00. 

The average cos^ of the public printing under the Republican 
administration per year was $165,823.00 ; average cost per 
annum under former administrations, $7,807.00 ; cost for one 
3'ear under Hampton's administration, $6,178,00. 

Amount appropriated in one year 1872-73 by Republicans 
for printing $450,000.00 ; Amount appropriated in 25 years 
ending 1866, $278,251.00 ; Excess of one year's appropria- 
tion over 25 years, $171,749.00. 



IQQ WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

It would be easy to present these startling amounts in other 
litrhts and compare them with appropriations for the same 
purpose in other states, showing for instance that the cost of 
printing in South Carolina in one year exceeded by $122,- 
932.13 the cost of like work in Massachusetts, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Maryland together, but these un- 
adorned figures speak so powerfully that nothing can be 
added to their force. 

Of course all these immense sums did not reach the pockets 
of the " ring." A large part of them had to be paid to 
senators and members to smooth the way for their bills 
through the Legislature. 

For the passage of one printing bill for $250,000 they 
paid to members and senators and others, various sums aggre- 
gating $112,550. 

During Scott's second administration he maintained his 
former record by pardoning 247 convicts. 

In the Autumn of 1871 General Grant, then President of 
the United States, issued his proclamation suspending the writ 
of habeas corpus in nine counties of the state, and sent a 
large military force into these counties to arrest persons 
charged with crime. 

About six hundred citizens of the state were arrested and 
held in jail for weeks and months ; some of them were tried 
in the United States courts and convicted, and were sentenced 
to pay fines ranging from $20 to $1000, and to suffer im- 
prisonment from one month to five years. 

Before the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus there 
had been outbreaks of violence in several counties, the cause 
of which was fully explained by Judge Carpenter, a ]^rom- 
inent Republican official of the state, in his testimony given 
before the Congressional Committee, in 1871. 

He says in substance that the pardoning of criminals, the 
election law and other things of a like character were the sole 
causes of men taking the law into their own hands. There 
was a great deal of excitement, a o;reat sense of insecurity and 
a great feeling of indignation. The appointees to office wore 
not only incompetent, but corrupt. Men were made School 
Commissioners who could neither read nor write. Salaries 



EECONSTEUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. IQl 

were increased, public offices multiplied, while the only busi- 
ness of the officers seemed to be to prey upon the people. 

The most peaceable citizens of the state felt that they were 
without a government to protect them ; that in fact the 
government was inimical to them ; that it protected and 
rewarded the criminals while it punished the innocent and 
law-abiding. Under such circumstances it is not to be 
wondered at that men would try to do something to protect 
themselves. 

Towards the end of Scott's second term the political par- 
ties made their nominations for state and other offices. The 
Republicans named as their candidate for governor F. J. 
Moses, Jr., who had been for the four previous years Speaker 
of the House of Representatives. The Conservatives and Bolt- 
ing Republicans supported for the Governorship Reuben Tom- 
linson, who was thought to be the one Republican most likely 
to bring about some reform. Both parties criticised severely 
before the public the practices of Scott's administration, and 
promised a correction of them. Moses was elected by the 
usual majority. A Republican writer, in October, 1873, gives 
this opinion of the past and the existing administration : 

" The whole of the late administration, which terminated 
its existence in November, 1872, was a morass of rottenness, 
and the present administration was born of the corruption of 
that ; but for the exhaustion of the state, there is no good 
reason to believe it would steal less than its predecessor." 

In 1860, the taxable value of propertv in the state was 
$490,000,000, and the taxes a little less than $400,000 In 
1871, the taxable value had been reduced to $184,000,000, 
and the taxes increased to $2,000,000. Thus while the 
property of the state, between 1860 and 1871, had been re- 
duced to a little over one-third of its former amount, the 
taxes, in the same period, had been increased five hundred 
per cent. In 1874, the last year of Moses' administration, 
the property of the state was assessed for taxation, and the 
assessmentfell from pO,000,000 to $40,000,000 below the 
aggregate of the previous assessment In 1874, 2900 pieces 
of real estate in Charleston county alone were forfeited for 
taxes. In 19 counties taken together, 93,293 acres of land 



102 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

were sold in the same year for unpaid taxes, and 343,971 
acres were forfeited to the state for the same reason. By the 
beginning of the term of F. J. Moses, Jr., and after four 
years of Republican rule, the debt of the state had increased 
from $5,407,306 to $18,515,033, including past due and un- 
paid interest for three years. During three years no public 
works of any importance were begun or finished. The entire 
increase of $13,000,000 of debt represented nothing but un- 
necessary and profligate expenditures and stealing. 

The intelligent property owners of the state, having practi- 
cally no influence on legislation, realizing the dreadful condi- 
tion to which they were being reduced, and knowing that no 
redress could be had through any branch of the state govern- 
ment, organized in 1871, what was known as the Tax-payers' 
Convention. This body, as a whole, was thoroughly represent- 
ative of the virtue, intelligence and property of tlie state. 
They discussed fully the condition of public affairs and 
issued an address to the public, in which they set forth 
the status of the public debt, the financial condition of the 
state, etc., and hoped in this way to bring to bear the honest 
sentiment of the country in favor of a change, and thus stay, 
in a measure, the hand by which they were being ruined. 
Their effort produced no appreciable results. 

In 1874 another convention was held, in which again the 
dreadful state of affairs was plainly and fully made known, 
and an appeal issued to the country. 

In addition, a large committee was appointed to proceed to 
Washington to lay before the President a full statement of 
the condition of our affairs, and to make known to him the 
position to Avhich we had been reduced, and to invoke his aid 
toward providing some relief. 

With some difficulty, a meagre sum was raised from the 
impoverished people to meet the expenses of this committee, 
but before they could reach the National Capital the state 
officials drew ^2,500 of the money of these same tax-payers 
from the treasury, and sent several of their number to see 
the President and arrange that no heed should be given to 
the committee of citizens. So completely successful was 
their mission that when the committee of tax-payers arrived, 



EECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH CAEOLINA. 103 

the mind of the President was completely closed to their 
appeal and they were not even heard with patience. 
Thus again the eiForts of the tax-payers proved utterly 
futile. 

Upon the Legislature that was elected in 1872, devolved 
the duty of choosing a United States Senator. There were 
three candidates, namely: R. B. Elliot, who based his claims 
on the fact that he was the leading negro politician of the 
state; R. K. Scott, who had just retired from the Governor- 
ship and claimed this further honor on account of his services 
to his party, and John J. Patterson, who relied solely on his 
money. 

With such arguments and such a constituency, the result 
was never in any doubt. Before a committee of the Legisla- 
ture, sixty witnesses from every part of the state testified 
under oath that Patterson had bribed members of the Leo-is- 
lature to vote for him. Most of these witnesses were either 
members, who had themselves taken the money, or friends of 
members who were present when this contract yvas made or 
the cash paid, or the agents and workers of Patterson, who 
had been personally engaged in contracting for and settling 
for the votes. 

Votes, in that election ranged from $25 to $2,000. This 
last sum, of which one half was paid, having been offered in 
the Senate Chamber while the election was in progress be- 
tween the first and second ballots, to the Senator who had 
nominated Scott and who says '^ that with some hesitation he 
voted for Patterson." 

Two remarks of Patterson which are on record and pre- 
served, tell the story of this whole transaction in very suc- 
cinct form. 

Early in the canvass he stated to a member of the House, 
that $75,000 if necessary, would be spent in securing his 
election, and at the end he declared that " the d — d election 
had cost him more than it was worth." Charges of bribery 
were made against Patterson, and he became so much alarmed 
at the prospects of a prosecution that he appealed to Governor 
Moses, and the latter removed the jury commissioner of the 
county and had a friend of Patterson's appointed for the pur- 



104 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

pose of having jury lists made up to secure the new Senators' 
safety, and it was done accordingly. Patterson occupied a 
seat in the United States Senate for six years, but he repre- 
sented nothing whatever, in South Carolina. He represented 
simply his own pocket-hook. 

During Moses' administration the pardoning of criminals 
became a simple matter of bargain and sale. Any convict 
who had strong friends or a long purse, was in no danger of 
having to serve out a sentence in the Penitentiary. So com- 
mon and notorious did the pardoning of criminals become, 
that judges announced from the bench, their unwillingness to 
put the people to the expense and trouble of convicting crim- 
inals for the Governor to pardon. During his term of two 
years he issued 457 pardons. On October 31, 1874, there re- 
mained in the penitentiary only 168 convicts, and Moses par- 
doned 46 during the month of November following, which 
was the last month of his service as Governor. 

In May, 1875, Governor Chamberlain declared in an in- 
terview with a correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, 
that when, at the end of Moses' administration, he entered on 
his duties as Governor, two hundred trial justices were hold- 
ing office by executive appointment, who could neither read 
nor write the English language. 

The jurisdiction of these officers in civil matters extended 
to actions on contract, for penalties and forfeitures, for in- 
juries to person and property, and generally to all cases where 
the sum claimed did not exceed one hundred dollars. 

Their criminal jurisdiction embraced practically all offences 
where the penalty of fine or forfeiture did not exceed one 
hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the jail not exceeding 
thirty days. 

They had power to examine into treason, felonies, grand 
larcenies, high crimes and misdemeanors, and to bind over or 
commit those appearing to be guilty of these offences. 

Every Trial Justice was empowered to admit to bail all 
persons except those charged with an offence, the punishment 
of which was death, and in the latter case, he could discharge 
the prisoner if it clearly appeared that the charge was not 
founded in probability. 



RECONSTKUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 105 

Any two Trial Justices could grant the Writ of Habeas Cor- 
pus as fully and effectually as the highest Judges in the state. 

In December, 1873, the General Assembly passed an act to 
reduce the public debt and provide for its j^ayment. 

This act recognized as valid of the principal and interest of 
the debt, §11,480,033.91, and provided for the issue of new 
bonds of the state for fifty per cent, of the value of this, and 
repudiated outright $5,965,000.00 of bonds known as con- 
version bonds. 

As the term of Governor Moses was coming; to a close the 
nominations for state officers were made. The regular Re- 
publicans nominated D. H. Chamberlain, for the governorship, 
who had been the Attorney-General during: Scott's admin- 
istration; and the bolting Republicans placed against him 
John T. Green, a native, a Republican and a Circuit Judge, 
and again the Democrats or Conservatives joined them and 
supported their candidate. 

The administration of state affairs under Moses had become 
so intolerably rotten and corrupt that the reputable and honest 
people of the state were outraged beyond all expression, and 
even the more cautious participants in the schemes of plunder 
were frightened into a manifestation of opposition to such a 
course. The election showed over 1:2,000 more votes than 
had been cast at any time since 1868, and the majority of the 
regular Republican ticket was reduced to about one-third of 
the usual number. 

Governor Chamberlain, quite in contrast with his prede- 
cessors, talked reform after his election as well as before it. 
In his inaugural address he exposed unmercifully the ex- 
travagance of expenditures under the former administrations 
and insisted that there must be a change. He pointed out 
among other extravagances that the expenses of the Legisla- 
ture for six years for mileage, pay of members and employees, 
etc., had been $2,147,430.97 and for executive contingent 
expenses $376,832.74. 

Some portions of the negro militia organized and armed by 
Governor Scott were still in existence and in January 1875 a 
serious affray occurred in Edgefield county between men of 
different races. The usual course before that in all such cases 



IQQ WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

had been for the Governor to work up these troubles into insur- 
rections and have some negroes killed and then appeal to the 
President for troops to suppress them. Governor Chamberlain 
took the wiser course of simply issuing his proclamation 
directing the militia and other military organizations to dis- 
arm and cease all military exercises. This was done and the 
trouble was allayed at once. It was the first instance since 
1868 in which a reasonable and just policy had been adopted 
toward the white people of the state in such cases, and their 
astonishment and delight at receiving some kind consideration 
at the hands of their own state gov^ernment was too marked 
to escape notice. The result fully justified the wisdom of the 
Governor's course. During the first sitting of the Legislature 
of 1874-75, the Governor had a long and severe contest with 
the baser elements of his own party. They endeavored to 
have the State Treasurer, who was a strong friend of the 
Governor, removed from office, but this was defeated by a 
combination between the Democrats and some of the Republi- 
can friends of the Gov^ernor. He vetoed during this session 
nineteen bills chiefly on the grounds of extravagance and 
profligacy, and in every one he was sustained by the same 
combination of political elements. 

In the face of great and unrelenting opposition in his own 
party Governor Chamberlain, by the aid of the Democrats 
and some of his political allies in the Legislature, had been 
able to accomplish some marked and wholesome reforms in 
public expenditures, and for this he had won the warm praise 
of a number of the leading papers and many of the promi- 
nent conservative citizens of the State. His course had done 
much to allay race antagonism, had created a greater sense of 
security in the public mind and given the people some ground 
for the hope of better days in the future. 

These feelings were, however, entirely dissipated by one act 
of the Legislature of 1875, which set at defiance all the 
efforts at genuine reform in the state, and left no ground for 
any reasonable man to base a belief on that public affairs 
would ever permanently improve under the control of the 
party then in power. 

Eight judges were to be chosen that session. It was well 



EECONSTKUCTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 107 

known that the Governor had expressed himself as beino- 
greatly interested in having selected men of ability and es- 
pecially of personal integrity. 

While he was temporarily absent the conspirators went 
into an election and chose for two of the most important 
posts in the state, F. J. Moses, Jr. and W. J. Whipper. Mr. 
Allen, the author of " Chamberlain's Administration in South 
Carolina, '^ characterizes this action as " an oifence against 
public honor and safety on the part of the legislative body 
more flagrant than any other which stained the era of recon- 
struction in South Carolina, and perhaps the most alarming 
legislative action in any Southern state.^' 

On his return to Columbia and learning what had been 
accomplished by the Republicans of the General Assembly, 
the Governor declared, in a published interview, "■ This 
calamity is infinitely greater, in my judgment, than any 
which has yet fallen on this state, or, I might add, upon any 
part of the South." 

A few days subsequent to this Governor Chamberlain in 
declining an invitation to the banquet of a New England 
Society said : " I cannot attend 3'our supper to-night ; but if 
there ever was an hour when the spirit of the Puritans, the 
spirit of undying, unconquerable enmity and defiance to wrong 
ought to animate their sons, it is this hour, here, in South 
Carolina. The civilization of the Puritan and the Cavalier, 
of the Roundhead and the Huguenot is in peril. Courage, 
determination, union, victory, must be our watchwords. The 
grim Puritans never quailed under threat or blow. Let their 
sons now imitate their example ! " 

The election of these men to two of the most important 
judicial positions in the state, in spite of all opposition, both 
inside and outside of the party in power, sent a thrill of 
horror through the entire commonwealth and aroused the 
people to an extent unprecedented for years. 

Large meetings were held in nearly every county in the 
state, in which the firm determination was expressed that 
these men should never be permitted to enter as judges into the 
courts of justice. Fortunately the use of any forcible means 
was obviated by the refusal of the Governor to commission 



108 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

either Moses or Whipper upon leo^al grounds, which were 
afterwards, iu another case, approved by the Supreme Court of 
the state. Whipper threatened to take his office by force, but 
was deterred from such a course by the prompt action of the 
Governor in issuing a proclamation, in which he dechired 
that he would arrest him and every one aiding and abetting 
him as rioters and disturbers of the peace. 

Governor Chamberlain, in a letter to President Grant, 
again characterizes these men chosen by his party as judges 
as follows: ''Unless the entirely universal opinion of all 
who are familiar with his career is mistaken, he (Moses) is as 
infamous a character as ever in any age disgraced and pros- 
tituted public position. The character of W. J. Whij)per, 
according to my belief and the belief of all good men in the 
state, so far as I am informed, differs from that of Moses only 
in the extent to which opportunity has allowed him to ex- 
hibit it. The election of these two men to judicial offices 
sends a thrill of horror through the state. It compels men 
of all parties who respect decency, virtue or civilization to 
utter their loudest protests against the outrage of their 
election.'^ 

The election to such places of these two men, not only 
wholly incompetent, but well known to be flagrantly dis- 
honest and corrupt was the beginning of a change in the 
state. 

At nearly every one of the mass meetings held in the 
different counties to protest against this action of the General 
Assembly, resolutions were adopted by the people, declaring 
that all hope of securing even a tolerable government under 
the dominant party had been dissipated and that the sole 
prospect of reform in public affairs lay in the reorganization 
of the Democratic party and its induction into power. 

Governor Chamberlain quickly apprehended that this 
would be the result. In his first utterance for the public, 
after the Moses-Whipper affair, he said : " I look upon their 
election as a horrible disaster — a disaster equally great to the 
state and to the Republican party. The gravest consequences 
of all kinds will follow. One immediate effect will obvi-. 
ously be the reorganization of the Democratic party within 



RECONSTRUCTION IX SOUTH CAROLINA. 109 

the state as the only means left, in the judgment of its mem- 
bers, for opposing a solid and reliable front to this terrible 
crevasse of misgov^ernment and public debauchery. I could 
have wished, as a Republican, to hav^e kept off such an issue." 

He rightly appreciated the situation. The negroes seemed 
to be elated by this defiance of decency upon the part of their 
chosen Representatives in the Legislature, and the whites 
were thoroughly aroused to a sense of the danger that con- 
fronted them. The negro militia in some portions of the 
state became greatly interested in parading and drilling, and 
the whites seeing this thought that it was prudent to be 
ready to take care of themselves and their families. 

As a result of this condition of things there were several 
bloody encounters between the blacks and whites, in which a 
number of persons were killed and wounded. 

These troubles, of course, did not conduce to a kindly . 
feeling between the two races, and the sentiment that the 
intelligent tax-payers of the state must control public affairs 
or be ruined and driven from their homes continually grew 
and increased among the people. 

For a time there was great difference of opinion among the 
leading men of the state as to whether it was wisest to try 
again the plan of compromising on a ticket with the opposi- 
tion, or make a straightout Democratic nomination. The 
latter was finally decided upon. The other course had been 
tried for eight years and no appreciable benefit had been de- 
rived from it. And while the efforts of Governor Chamber- 
lain in behalf of economy and decency had resulted in some 
temporary good, it had been made manifest that he was unable 
to control his own party. 

In 1868 we had nominated for Governor an honorable and 
able citizen of the state; in 1870 we had joined in nomina- 
ting an able carpet-bagger, whom the Republicans had before 
that placed on the bench ; in 1872 we had, in conjunction 
with some Republicans, supported another carpet-bag Repub- 
can official who had some claims to honesty; and in 1874 we 
had again given our votes and influence to a native Republi- 
can of fair ability and character who had been named for 
Governor by the dissatisfied Republicans. 



110 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

In all of these several instances we had also nominated and 
supported tickets for the Legislature and county ollices made 
up partly of blacks and partly of whites. We had held con- 
ventions of the tax payers and ap})ealed to the country, and 
had sent a delegation to the Capital of the Nation for the 
])urpose of acquainting the President of the United States 
with the true condition of the state, and had protested in 
every possible way against such inhuman tyranny. 

All these efforts had proven to be worse than worthless, 
and it had become manifest that the real question that 
confronted the people of the state was one of race su- 
premacy. 

The Republicans renominated Governor Chamberlain 
and the Democrats put in the field a full ticket of white 
men, with General Wade Hampton at the head of it. The 
campaign that followed was the most exciting ever known 
in the state, and resulted in the election of the Democratic 
ticket. 

With the installation of these officers and the meeting of 
the General Assembly began the first honest and economical 
administration that the state had known since the beginning 
of reconstruction, and from that time to the present the affairs 
of the state have been managed with a regard for the people's 
welfare. The public schools and the institutions for higher 
education have been cared for and su])ported. The interest 
on the public debt has been paid, and instead of selling six 
per cent, bonds of the state at twenty-five or thirty cents on 
the dollar, the four-and-a-half per cent, bonds of the state 
are now bringing more than par. Instead of salaries costing 
$230,800, as in 1872, they were reduced to §106,200 in 1876. 
In place of paying $712,200 for legislative expenses, as hi 
1871, this item was reduced to $42,000 in 1880. The public 
printing, which cost $450,000 in 1872, was reduced to $6,900 
in 1878. The state, counties, towns and school districts have 
now no floating debt and all obligations are paid as they ma- 
ture. Instead of profligacy we have honesty ; instead of 
extravagance, economy ; instead of uneasiness, we have con- ' 
tentment, and instead of rioting, peace. 

The resources of the state are being greatly developed ; the 



EECONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH CAKOLINA. m 

manufacturing enterprises are multiplying wonderfully and 
the people are looking to the future for still greater develop- 
ment of its industries and resources. 

All we ask is to be let alone, and that, surely, is not so 
great a request that it cannot or ought not be granted. 

Jno. J. Hemphill. 



CHAPTER Y. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. 

" A military Kepublic, a Government founded on mock elections and 
supported only by the sword, is a movement indeed, but a retrograde and 
disastrous movement from the regular and old-fashiohed monarchical 
systems." 

"Absurd, preposterous is it, a scoff and a satire on free forms of consti- 
tutional liberty for frames of government to be prescribed by military 
leaders, and the right of suffrage to be exercised at the point of the 
sword." Daniel Webster. 

THE Confederacy of Southern states had perished. Its great 
commanders had in succession surrendered their swords, 
and their ragged and hungry soldiers, weary of strife, had 
returned to their desolated iiomes. Mr. Davis was a captive, 
and the members of his cabinet were cither prisoners or exiles. 
There was sincere and universal submission to the authority 
of the United States. The invading armies could not find a 
single armed enemy from Maryland to the Mexican border. 
Soon after the crops of that disastrous year had been planted, 
masters called up their slaves and informed them that they 
w^ere free. The plow stood still, and the freedmen went to 
town. All the agencies of conjmerce were either destroyed 
or suspended. The private debts of a prosperous era had 
survived the means of payment. Of money there was none. 
The banks were broken and the treasuries of the towns, 
cities, counties and state were empty. Notes and bills of the 
state had become uncurrent, and the treasury notes and bank 
bills of the United States had not yet flowed into the country. 
There was cotton, now becoming valuable, stored away against 
the evil day, but array officers and treasury agents were hunt- 
ing this last resource of a ruined people with unrelenting 
rapacity. The railroads were wrecked, and had no means 
112 



EECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. II3 

with which to replace their tracks and rolling stock. Cities 
and great tracts of country were in ashes. Colleges and 
schools were silent, the teachers without pupils and the chil- 
dren without teachers. Even the great charities and asylums 
of the State, at this time when they were most needed, were 
unable to take care of lunatics, the deaf and blind. From 
Tennessee to Savannah, a region twenty miles wide, had been 
ravaged, and even the seed corn, implements of husbandry 
and farm animals, had been destroyed or removed by the 
army of General Sherman. The means of social enjoyment 
were wanting, and thousands lacked even the means of sub- 
sistence. 

And over this scene of confusion and wretchedness hung 
like a pall, the apprehension of pains and penalties, of pro- 
scription and humiliation. 

There has not been such an opportunity for statesmanship 
since the War of the Revolution. The white population of 
the state in 1860 was 591,550, and yetthe state had furnished 
to the Confederate armies 120,000 soldiers. (See address by 
the historian and scholar, Colonel C. C. Jones, Jr., LL. D., 
made at Augusta, April 25, 1889.) 

Such unanimity and devotion were without a parallel in 
history. To support the cause of independence, the fortunes 
and lives of the entire people had been pledged. It is ob- 
vious that persecution would only endear that cause to all 
Georgians. On the other hand, magnanimous treatment 
would have vindicated those who had deprecated secession, 
and would have discredited the wisdom of those who had 
advocated that measure. 

The Congress of the United States had, in July, 1861, re 
solved, that 'Hhis war is not waged on our part in any spirit 
of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, 
nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or 
established institutions of those [Southern] states, but to de- 
fend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to 
preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality and rights 
of the several states unimpaired, and that so soon as these 
objects are accomplished, the war ought to ccase.'^ 

The author of this resolution was Andrew Johnson, then a 
8 



114 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Senator from the State of Tennessee, and, by the assassination 
of Mr. liincoln, he was now the President of the United 
States. If he and his party had stood by the policy an- 
nounced by Congress in 1861, there would have been very 
few in Georgia, in 1865, to defend the policy of secession. 

The Governor was arrested by soldiers and lodged in 
prison. Fetters were riveted upon Mr. Davis, and he was 
kept in close custody for two years without bail and without 
a trial. Garrisons of United States troops, often colored 
soldiers, invaded every county and took charge of every court- 
house. The Freedmen^s Bureau interposed between the farmers 
and their late slaves, and inaugurated distrust and estrange- 
ment where there should have been kindness and sympathy. 
Martial law and military tribunals displaced the old system 
of justice and the ancient jurisprudence. Justice was sold, 
and a recovery was a military capture. The writer saw a trial 
of a case of trover between two citizens before an Ohio lieu- 
tenant in uniform, without a jury. There was complete 
strangulation of the state, and the only security for life or 
property was the military power, or the strong hand. And 
in these conditions can be found the germs of the hostility 
which ensued between the races, and of the alienation which 
finally made the South solid against the Republican party. 

On the 29th of May, 1865, was published the President's 
proclamation of amnesty, from which were excepted fourteen 
classes. These excepted classes included persons of experience 
and influence, all of whom would have gladly co-operated in 
the work of restoration, and also those " the estimated value 
of whose taxable property was over twenty thousand dollars." 

The proclamation was in eifect an executive decree of 
wholesale outlawry, and strange, as it may ap])ear to lawyer 
and layman, informations were soon afterwards filed in the 
United States Court by the District Attorney, praying confis- 
cation of the property of the proscribed classes. And these 
disgraceful proceedings, wholly unwarranted by law, resulted 
at last in a harvest of costs exacted as a condition of settle- 
ment from people who were unable to bear the burden. This 
abuse of judicial process, previously unknown in the South, 
soon became familiar as a means of extortion, and has not 



RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. 115 

yet been fully eradicated in cases in which the Government 
is a party. Examples are not lacking to reinforce this state- 
ment. 

On the 17th of June in the same year, the President issued 
a proclamation by which James Johnson was appointed pro- 
visional Governor of the state, whose duty it should be at the 
earliest practicable period to prescril)e such rules and regula- 
tions as might be necessary and proper for convening a con- 
vention composed of delegates to be chosen by that portion of 
the people of the state who were loyal to the United States ; 
and the proclamation further provided that no person should 
be qualified as an elector, or should be eligible as a member 
of such convention unless he had been amnestied and was a 
voter qualified as prescribed by the constitution and laws in 
force prior to the 9th of January, 1861, the date of the at- 
tempted secession of the state. And the proclamation further 
directed the military and nav^al officers and forces in the De- 
partment of Georgia to aid and assist the provisional Gover- 
nor ; and the State, the Treasury, the Interior and Post-office 
Departments were directed to see that the laws of their re- 
spective departments were put in operation in the state, and 
the District Judge for the District of Georgia was instructed 
to hold his courts. The Attorney-General was directed to 
instruct the proper officers to libel and bring to judgment, 
confiscation and sale, property subject to confiscation. And 
the President further directed that if suitable residents could 
not be found for the Federal appointments in the state, then 
the several departments should make the appointment from 
other states. The citizens of the state being disfranchised as 
to Federal offices by the test oath, this proclamation was the 
first invitation to the carpet-baggers. They became very im- 
portant factors in the subsequent history of the state. 

This scheme of the President was a great departure from 
the plan of restoration which he had himself embodied in the 
resolutions of Congress before cited. But the provisional 
Governor entered upon his duties with the earnest co-opera- 
tion of the people, because an opportunity seemed to have 
arrived for the substitution of civil govei^nment for military 
despotism. To the convention, which was soon after called, 



116 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

there were chosen delegates of known conservatism and ia 
many cases men w^io were originally o})posed to secession. 
The ordinance of secession was formally repealed or rescinded, 
and a constitution was framed and adopted, abolishing 
slavery and conforming the state in all respects to the new 
conditions. 

Under pressure from Washington, by the President and 
members of Congress, an ordinance w^as adopted by the con- 
vention for the repudiation of bonds, treasury notes and other 
obligations issued by the state during the period of the war. 
These securities had been sought by guardians and trustees 
for the investment of funds in their hands, and all prudent 
citizens hoarded them with care. The act of the convention, 
by which they were declared null, brought ruin on many 
widows and orphans, and reduced to penury man}' citizens too 
old to start life over again. 

The Congress then in office was engaged in the considera- 
tion of a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United 
States so as to nullify these state obligations, and it was 
finally embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment, And these 
incidents first prepared the public mind to determine the 
legality of obligations of the state having the apparent sanc- 
tion of law. The precedent was afterward followed with 
good reason, when the people recovered their liberties in 1871. 

The General Assembly chosen by the people, as the Con- 
stitution provided, soon afterward met at Milledgeville, in the 
old capitol, and Charles J. Jenkins, a man of exalted char- 
acter, an old Whig, was inaugurated as Governor. The 
Legislature laid the necessary taxes, made the appropriations 
required for the support of the Government, provided funds 
by loans for the immediate ^vants of the state, ratified the 
Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United 
States, invested the negroes with all the civil rights of white 
j)ersons, except the right to vote and hold office, and, in fact, 
with all the privileges and guarantees enjoyed by them in 
many of the Northern States. Under these new laws, the white 
people of the state were allowed no greater superiority over 
negroes than the white citizens of the District of Columbia 
had over the colored population under the laws of Congress. 



KECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. 117 

Alexander H. Stephens and Herschel V. Johnson, both of 
whom had been ardent Union men, Mr. Johnson having 
been a candidate for the Vice-Presidency on the ticket with 
Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Stephens a zealous and able champion 
of that ticket, and both of whom had^ in the convention of 
1861, eloquently resisted secession, were chosen as Senators to 
the United States. 

It should also be noted that this General Assembly refused 
to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of 
the United States, chiefly because it imposed political disabil- 
ities upon the leading men of the state, for no other reason 
than that they had served the people in the various positions 
to which they had been elected or appointed. 

In March, 1866, Congress passed a concurrent resolution 
that no Senator or Representative should be admitted into 
either branch of Congress from any of the eleven states 
which had been declared to be in insurrection, until Congress 
should declare such states entitled to representation. Mr. 
Stephens and Mr. Johnson were repulsed from the Senate, 
and the gentlemen who had been elected to the House were 
scarcely able to present their credentials. Thus ignominiously 
failed the policy of restoration which the President had 
formulated and which seemed to coincide with the plan of 
Mr. Lincoln, and thenceforth the old Union party in Georgia 
almost disappeared. This flouting of the President and the 
revengeful temper of Congress, as shown in the debates of 
that period, against the white people of the South, dispelled 
all delusions, and all differences in that section practically 
ceased. 

Leaving out the memory of long years of common suff'erings 
and misfortunes, they had the same apprehensions of approach- 
ing oppression. Their only enemies in Congress belonged to 
the Republican party, and they were bitter and vindictive; 
their only friends in power were Democrats. Their situation 
united them with each other, and with the Democratic party. 

A.11 the measures of the Republican party from this time 
forth, touching Southern affairs, treated the Southern states, 
not as states in the Union upon the theory of the Constitution 
on which the war had been fought^ but as conquered provinces. 



;ilg WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

On the 16th of July, 1866, Congress passed an act extend- 
ino- the provisions of the act estabhshiug the bureau for the 
reHef of freedmen, and enacting that the Commissioner should, 
under the direction of the President, appoint such agents, 
clerks and assistants as might be required for the proper con- 
duct of the bureau. No limit was tixed for the number of 
these agents, and they were to be so far deemed in the mili- 
tary service of the United States as to be under military juris- 
diction, and entitled to the military protection of the govern- 
ment. And the act further provided that the President 
should through the Commissioner and the officers of the bu- 
reau and under such rules and regulations of the President, 
through the Secretary of War should prescribe, extend mili- 
tary protection and have military jurisdiction over all cases 
and questions concerning the free enjoyment of the personal 
immunities and rights conferred by the act, until the state 
should be duly represented in the Congress of the United 
States. Thus every bureab agent was a coiu't with military 
jurisdiction. Such a court was established in every county in 
the state. These special tribunals were officered by persons 
who could take the test oath, and became the nurseries from 
which aliens and strangers disseminated among the negroes 
hate and rancor towards the white citizens. And Congress 
on the 13th of the same month appropriated $6,887,700 for 
the fiscal year beginning with the iirst day of the month for 
the support of the bureau, for salaries, clothing for distribu- 
tion, for commissary stores, medical department, transportation, 
schoolteachers, repairs and rents of school-houses and asylums. 
Power limited by none of the safeguards to which freemen 
had been accustomed, the creation of an army of officers and 
employees whose number and functions were prescribed not 
by Congress, but by the executive branch, and a prodigal ap- 
propriation of money to be distributed by these officers without 
any defined accountability, were the prerogatives conferred on 
this extraordinary institution. And the administration of the 
system inevitably provoked irritation between the races, 
tempted the agents to foment the discords by which their 
continuance in office could be secured, and attracted the freed- 
men from the farms to the towns. In the towns the bureau 



KECONSTRUCTION IN GEOEGIA. II9 

located the schools and dispensed provisions, and mendicancy 
and prejudice, and heard complaints. 

In 1867, the acts known as the reconstruction acts of Con- 
gress were passed over the President's veto. These acts sub- 
ordinated all government existing in the state to a military 
commander, conferring on him the authority to administer all 
the powers of the state, authorizing him to appoint and remove 
Avhom he pleased, and life and liberty were subject to such 
military commissions or tribunals as he might create. The 
courts of the state could sit, but only by permission of the 
general in command. Those who had been members of any 
state Legislature, or held any executive or judicial office in 
any state and afterwards engaged in the war against the 
United States, were disfranchised, and the other male persons 
in the state, without regard to color or previous condition, 
should be registered as voters by the officers of military crea- 
tion, and these registered persons might vote at the election 
held under military supervision for or against a convention 
and for delegates to form a new constitution for the state if a 
majority should be cast for a convention. Congress by dis- 
franchising and enfranchising whom it pleased, fixed the 
basis of suffrage in the state. And one of these acts, (that of 
July 19th,) enacted that no district commander, or member 
of the board of registration, or any of the officers or appointees 
acting under them, should be bound by any opinion of any 
civil officer of the United States. By the operation of these 
acts, Georgia was reduced to a mere military district, in 
which the will of the commanding general was supreme, with 
no right of appeal from his orders to any court, or to any 
civil officer of the state or of the general government. 

The details of these acts have already been sufficiently 
stated in a previous chapter ; and the study of them can 
afford no pleasure to any American citizen. 

The registration took place substantially as Congress pre- 
scribed, and by General Pope's order, the election was held 
on the 29th, 30th and 31st of October, and on the 1st and 
2nd of November, 1867, the polls being kept open for five days 
under the management of army officers, and with troops con- 
venient to every voting place. By a general order from the 



120 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

headquarters of the district, the conventiou was declared to 
have beeu carried, and the delegates of the Republican i^arty 
were declared elected. The delegates were ordered to meet 
in convention, not at Milledgeville, the capital of the state, 
but at Atlanta, on the 9th day of December, and proceed to 
frame a constitution and civil government for the state. 

When the convention met, Foster Blodgett, afterwards a 
fugitive from the state, was elected temporary chairman, and 
on taking the chair, among other things said : ^' To-day the 
Republic is free! This convention is a splendid exemplifica- 
tion of the fact. Gentlemen, I tender you my congratula- 
tions. The whole civilized world greet you to-day, assembled 
as the representatives of the people of the free state of 
Georgia !'' And the permanent president, on assuming the 
chair, said tlrnt " it will gladden every patriotic heart to know 
that liberty still lives in our grand old Commonwealth.'^ 

These fine sentiments were uttered not far from General 
Pope's headquarters, and the first resolution adopted after 
the organization, informed him that, ^' in obedience to his 
orders this convention is now assembled and organized, and 
invites his presence in the convention at his pleasure.^^ 

And a few days afterwards he was met at the door of the 
hall by a committee and escorted in uniform and with a 
^clanking sword, amid applause, to the right of the President. 
Speeches were made on this occasion, but the manliest was 
made by General Pope. Soon after the convention met, the 
delegates realized that no fund had been provided to pay for 
their patriotic services, and an ordiance was passed to levy 
and collect a tax for that purpose ; but as the slow process of 
taxation could not relieve immediate wants, the ordinance 
further directed the treasurer of the state to advance to the 
convention out of the treasury $40,000. The treasurer 
refused to honor this requisition, in the absence of an execu- 
tive warrant. General Pope having been removed by the 
president from the command of the district, his successor, 
General Meade, early in January 1868, required Governor 
Jenkins to issue a warrant for the sum demanded by the 
convention. The Governor refused to comply, on the ground 
that the constitution of the state, which he had sworn to sup- 



RECONSTEUCTION IN GEORGIA. 121 

port, expressly provided that no money should be taken from 
the treasury, except by executive warrant upon appropria- 
tions made by law. The new commander thereupon issued 
an order deposing the Governor, State Treasurer and Con- 
troller General, and appointed army officers to execute their 
functions. The gubernatorial appointee of General Meade, 
on presenting himself to assume the government of the state, 
read in answer to a question, an extract from his instructions 
directing him in case of resistance, to employ such force as 
might be necessary. Governor Jenkins in his account of the 
affair said that, as far as was practicable in the brief interval 
allowed him, he placed the moveable values of the state and 
certainly the money then in the treasury beyond reach, but 
these military men took actual [)ossession of the State Capitol 
and its grounds, of the executive mansion and its furniture 
and of the archives of the State, proceeded to collect taxes, 
seized upon the income of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, 
then in good order and successful operation, and secured all 
the revenues of the State subsequently flowing into the 
Treasury. 

Governor Jenkins, as soon as action was taken under 
the reconstruction acts, had repaired to Washington and 
filed a bill in the Supreme Court in the name of the state, 
against General Pope and others, seeking to enjoin any 
proceedings under these acts, as infringements of the Con- 
stitution of the United States. Permission was given to 
file the bill, (and only a state in the Union could file such 
a bill in that court), but it was dismissed after argument, 
on the ground that it alleged neither interference nor the 
threat of interference with the property of the state, 
which allegation, the court held was necessary to make a case 
for their consideration. When the subsequent seizure of the 
great offices of the state and of all its accessible property oc- 
curred, Governor Jenkins, deeming himself still the rightful 
Governor of the State, again went before the Supreme Court 
alleging these facts, and permission was given to file the bill ; 
but the permission was revoked the next day, and a new rule 
of practice devised and enforced, which compelled delays, and 
finally the learned counsel for the state, Mr. O'Connor, Mr. 



222 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Black Mr. Field and others, were told that there did not re- 
main of the term, time enough to hear and determine a 
motion for injunction. Before the commencement of the 
next term, the Atlanta Convention had done its work. (See 
the report made by Governor Jenkins in 1872, House 
Journal, p. 405.) 

On the 11th of March, the convention adopted an ordi- 
nance providing that should it be necessary for the convention 
after its adjournment to reassemble it should do so at the call 
of its president pro tempore, or in default of both, by the 
general commanding the Third Military District, and or- 
dained that an election should be held beginning the 20th of 
April following, at such places as might be designated by the 
commanding general, for voting on the ratification of the new 
Constitution, and for the election of Governor, members of 
the General Assembly, Representatives in Congress and other 
officers, said election to be kept open from day to day at the 
discretion of the commanding general, and the qualifications 
of voters were to be the same as those prescribed by the act 
of Congress, known as the Sherman Bill, and General Meade 
was requested to give the necessary orders, and cause due re- 
turns to be made and certificates of election to issue. The 
militarv commander published general orders on the 14th 
and 15th of March, assuming entire chaise of the election, 
providing that it should commence on the 20th of April and 
continue for four days, prescribing the minutest details and 
providing that sheriffs and other civil officers failing to per- 
form with energy and good faith the duties required of them, 
and citizens charged with violation of the right of suffrage, 
should be tried and punished by the military authority, and 
directing that the returns of the election should be made to 
himself. 

The Constitution so made and submitted to the people was 
framed by delegates elected almost entirely by those who had 
no right to vote according to the laws of the state, the white 
people having almost universally refused to participate in the 
election. It proposed the enfranchisement of the colored 
people, and they were to vote on the proposition, and many 
of the white ])eople were not allowed this pif vilege. It was 
a curious plebiscit. 



EECONSTKUCTION IN GEOKGIA. 123 

The Constitution also ordained that no court in the state 
should have jurisdiction to try or determine any suit against 
any resident of the state, upon any contract or agreement 
made or implied, or upon any contract made in renewal of 
any debt existing prior to the first day of June, 1865, and it 
provided for each head of a family a homestead and exemption 
against his debts of the aggregate value of $3,000 in gold. 

These transparent devices with others of a similar charac- 
ter, were artfully designed to attract the support of the 
debtor class, and after the election were annulled because in 
conflict with the Constitution of the United States. Those 
who were deceived and disappointed by the scheme, had no 
further reason in the years that followed, to act with the Re- 
publican party. 

In the interval between the convention and the election, 
the white people in some sections of the state were assured 
by the advocates of the Constitution that after its ratification 
negroes would not be eligible to office. The argument was 
that negroes had no political rights, except such as were con- 
ferred by law, and that the Constitution was silent on the 
subject. This view undoubtedly beguiled some persons who 
for other reasons were inclined to vote for ratification. 

Congress on the 12th of March, of this year, passed an act 
providing that a majority of the votes actually cast should 
determine the election, the previous acts having required a 
majority of the registered voters. There was no longer any 
motive for standing aloof, and Democrats as well as Republi- 
cans nominated candidates for the various offices. This policy 
of the Democrats possibly brought some of their voters to 
support the Constitution, who wished their candidates to take 
charge of the administration. 

The election was held on the appointed days and General 
Meade declared that the Constitution was ratified, and that 
Rufus B. Bullock, the Republican candidate for governor, was 
eleeted over John B. Gordon. 

On the 4th of July, the new General Assembly met under 
orders from Mr. Bullock and General Meade. The Gover- 
nor-elect relying on a military edict, assumed the chair, and 
proceeded to organize the two bodies. A Secretary was desig- 



124 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

nated by him to call the roll of the Senate, and Senators were 
requested to present themselves and take the oath of office. 
A Democratic Senator inquired of the Chairman whether ob- 
jection to the qualification of any Senator could at this juncture 
be entertained. The Chairman decided in the negative, and 
the call of the roll proceeded. After the Senators had taken 
the oath, the Chairman ordered an election for president. 
This order having been executed, and the Republican candi- 
date, Benjamin Conley, having received twenty-three votes, 
the Chairman declared him duly elected president of the Senate. 
The journal further recites that the election of a Secretary of the 
Senate was next " ordered.^^ And after the President had made a 
speech, the Grovernor-eleot withdrew. This ceremony was 
then repeated in the House of Bjepresentatlves, mufatlsmnfandis. 
The Governor- elect put himself in the chair, caused to be 
called the roll of the members-elect prepared by General 
Meade and "ordered^' the election of a speaker. During 
the call of the roll, Mr. Scott moved to adjourn. The Chair 
decided the motion out of order. Mr. Scott appealed to the 
House, and the Chairman declared that there could be no ap- 
peal except to the military. Mr. Scott appealed to the military, 
receiving no response, and the Secretary proceeded with the 
call. R. L. McWliorter, Republican, was by the Chairman 
declared elected, and to him the Governor yielded tlie chair. 

In reply to a communication from the General Assembly, 
notifying him through a joint committee that the organization 
of the two houses had been perfected, the Governor-elect 
transmitted a letter from General Meade, in which the Com- 
manding General informed his excellency that he had no in- 
structions to give, further than to make known that in his 
judgment neither house was legally organized until it was 
purged of members ineligible under the reconstruction acts. 
Committees were then appointed in each House, charged with 
the duty of reporting upon the eligibility of members, and 
upon their reports, each House resolved that all its members 
were eligible. 

General Meade in his report, states that the provisional 
Governor in communicating to him this action of the House, 
nevertheless, "expressed his opinion, founded on evidence 



RECONSTEUCTIOX IN GEORGIA. 125 

presented to him, that several members of both Houses were 
ineligible and called on me to exercise my power and require 
said members to vacate their seats. Ou reflecting upon this 
subject, I could not see how I was to take the individual judg- 
ment of the provisional governor in thefaceof asolemnactof a 
parliamentary body, especially as from the testimony presented, 
I did not in several cases agree with the judgment of the provis- 
ional governor. . . . My judgment was decidedly that I had 
fulfilled my duty in compelling the houses to take the action they 
had and that having thus acted, I had neither the authority 
nor was it politic or expedient, to over-rule their action and 
set up my judgment in opposition. ... I allude thus 
in extenso to this subject because his excellency, the Governor 
of Georgia, in a public speech recently delivered at Albion, 
N. Y., is pleased to attribute the failure of Georgia to be 
properly reconstructed, to my action in failing to purge the 
Legislature of his political opponents, he having advised me 
when he urged such action, that his friends had been relieved 
of their disability by Congress." (For this report see Senate 
election cases, pp. 291-2.) The provisional governor seems to 
have been trying in his own way to recast the result of the 
late election, and to use the blunt soldier for that purpose, as 
he had already done on many occasions. 

General Meade, on the 20th of July, advised and instructed 
the Governor that he had no further opposition to make to 
the two Houses proceeding with the business for which they 
were called together, and that he considered them legally 
organized. The Governor then also informed the General 
Assembly that they were required by the act of Congress, of 
June 25th, 1868, to ratify the fourteenth amendment of the 
Constitution of the United States. A resolution to that efl^ect 
was at once proposed and adopted. The same communication 
from the Governor informed the General Assembly that they 
were required, •' by solemn public act, to declare the assent of 
the state to that portion of the act of Congress which makes 
null and void" certain parts of the^new constitution which 
carried the taint of repudiation and impaired the obligation 
of contracts. And this last requirement was fulfilled. This 
little punctilio of Congress is a surprise under the circum- 
stances. 



126 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Mr. Bullock dropped his provisional title, and the state 
became entitled to representation in Congress, according 
to the act of June 25th. Joshua Hill and H. V. M. Miller 
were elected United States Senators. They were not admitteci 
to their seats until February, 1871. 

There had sat in the constitutional convention thirty-three 
negroes, and in the General Assembly now in session about 
the same number of colored men had seats. They had been, 
by their Republican associates of the white race, the carpet- 
baggers and other adventurers, seduced into a state of dis- 
dainful scorn, of the old proprietors of power in Georgia. 
Soon after the two Houses had entered upon the regular busi- 
ness of the session, the question which had been discussed 
during the interval between the convention and the last elec- 
tion, as to legal right of the colored ])eople to hold office, 
again became a topic of great interest, and finally a resolution 
was introduced in each body declaring them ineligible to seats. 
After a long discussion, on the third day of September, the 
House, by a vote of 83 to 23, passed the resolution, and 25 
negroes ceased to be members. In the Senate, by a similar 
resolution, passed on the 12th day of September, two seats 
were vacated. Not many days after these events, the 
candidates who received the next highest votes were ad- 
mitted to the seats. The Governor took occasion to 
send a message to the House, in which he inveighed 
against the decision of the General Assembly upon the 
qualifications of their own members, and his keynote was 
that after the surrender, ^' we were totally without polit- 
ical rights and privileges. Those which we have since ac- 
quired, are such as have from time to time been granted us 
by Congress." The view of the Supreme Court of the United 
States was different. That Court held that " the State (Texas) 
did not cease to be a state, nor her citizens to be citizens of 
the Union.'' (7 Wal. 701.) 

The message was returned to the Governor with a resolu- 
tion to the eifect, that his excellency did not keep their con- 
sciences. 

The question of the eligibility of the negro to office in 
Georgia, came before the Supreme Court of the state in 1869. 



KECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. 127 

That court consisted of three judges, appointed by Bullock, 
and confirmed by the Senate. Two of them were Republi- 
cans, and one was a Democrat who had sat upon that bench 
when the court was first organized. The case was a quo 
ivarranto brought up from the county of Chatham, by a 
colored man against whom a judgment of ouster from a 
county office had been granted by the Superior Court. The 
lower court was reversed by the two Republican judges, the 
Democratic judge dissenting. But it is interesting to note 
that one of the Republican judges, who was the Chief Justice, 
held that the right of the negro to hold office, so far as it de- 
pended on the constitution and laws of the state, was subject 
to repeal by the General Assembly. (39 Gen. Report.) 

The military administration of the executive and judicial 
departments of the state may require brief mention. The 
Governor's functions were devolved on an officer detailed 
from the army, and all the subordinate departments of the 
executive branch ex})erienced the same fate. Two eminent 
judges of the Superior Court were displaced because they 
chose to obey the law of the state rather than military com- 
mands. And all the judges and all the county and muni- 
cipal officers who were not removed held their places only by 
the permission or sufferance of the district commander. It 
is obvious that such an administration of public affairs could 
not have the hearty cooperation of the people. Crimes, no 
doubt, were committed in some instances against odious per- 
sons, and some secret murders went unpunished. The courts 
were virtually suspended, and army officers and soldiers not 
only had no relations of confidence with the community, but 
were unfit for civil duties. A case in point may be given as 
an illustration. Durino; the nio-ht of the 30th of March, 
1868, Geo. W. Ashburn, a white man, was assassmated m a 
low, negro brothel in the city of Columbus. His lodging 
was in a back room. He had been steward in a hotel, but, 
during the new era, had served as a member of the constitu- 
tional convention. On the last day of the convention he, as 
one of the minority of a committee, and against the recom- 
mendation of the majority, had caused that body to pass 
resolutions urging Congress to remove all political disabilities 



128 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

from the people of the state. It may be inferred, with pro- 
priety, that he was not specially offensive merely on account 
of his being a Republican. It was shown that ho had per- 
sonal enemies among his associates, who had threatened to 
take his life. But it was al once charged that the killing was 
a political murder. The municipal authorities of the city, 
nevertheless, offered a reward of five hundred dollars for the 
assassins, and General Meade offered two thousand dollars 
for the same purpose. The election on the ratification of the 
constitution, as well as of members of the General Assembly, 
was to occur in a few weeks; candidates were in the field, 
and the excitement ran higii. The mayor and aldermen of 
the city were removed by General Meade, and his subalterns 
substituted. On the 6th of April, thirteen citizens were 
arrested by an officer of the army, and when asked for his 
authority, he pointed to his file of soldiers. Nearly all the 
persons arrested were men of high position, who, in the opin- 
ion of the community, would not have been capable of such 
an atrocity. One of them was a Democratic candidate for 
the General Assembly (now a member of Congress), another 
was a candidate for a county office, and a third was the chair- 
man of the Democratic committee, conducting the canvass of 
his party. It was supposed that political motives led to their 
arrest. They were kept for a few days under guard by 
soldiers in the court-house — which should have been an asy- 
lum against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment — and were 
then allowed to give bond for their appearance before General 
Meade, whenever required. Three hundred and ninety-three 
of their neighbors eagerly became the bail of the prisoners. 
They were not permitted to know why they had been arrested, 
of what they were accused, or why they w^ere released on 
bond. During the month of May eight arrests were made, 
and the prisoners were conveyed under guard of soldiers from 
Columbus, on the western boundary of the state, to Fort Pu- 
laski, on the marshes below Savannah. They were confined 
in dark cells without ventilation, and but four feet by seven. 
No bed or blankets were furnished them. An old oyster can 
-was given each prisoner, and in this both coffee and soup were 
served. No kindness from their friends or relations or coun- 



RECONSTKUCTION IN GEORGIA. 129 

sel, nor any communication from them, was allowed. They 
were forced to remain in tliese cells, prostrated by heat and 
tortured by insects. John Wells, one of these prisoners, a 
negro, was taken out of his cell and put into a chair in one of 
the casemates, with a cannon pointed at his head and a soldier 
holding the string, ready,, apparently, to shoot the gun. A 
barber lathered his head and pretended to be preparing to 
shave it. After ten minutes of this treatment he was put 
back in his cell, with the understanding that if he did not 
tell something it would be worse for him. Another negro 
prisoner, John Stapler, was put before the gun, with no suc- 
cess. He was afterward put in the sweat-box and kept in 
great agony for thirty hours. When removed from the box, 
his legs were swollen. The story of the treatment of these 
negroes is taken from an affidavit made in Washington by 
Wm. H. Reed, one of the two detective officers employed by 
General Howard and General Meade to procure evidence for 
the government. During the month of June fourteen arrests 
were made at Columbus, and the prisoners were conveyed to 
McPherson barracks,, near Atlanta. There they were placed 
in cells six feet wide by ten feet long. These cells were after- 
ward divided by a partition, reducing their width to less than 
three feet. Neither bed nor bedding was furnished for sev- 
eral days. A prisoner lying on the floor (Dr. Kirksey) could, 
at the same time, touch the opposite walls with his elbows. 
The Fort Pulaski prisoners were transferred to these barracks, 
and after a while the new partitions were removed. Nine of 
the prisoners were discharged without any explanation, four 
were held as witnesses, and nine were detained for trial. On 
the 29th of June a military commission, consisting of seven 
officers of high rank, was convened at McPherson barracks, 
by order of General Mciide, for the trial of the prisoners. 
The accusation, in the military form of a charge and specifi- 
cation, alleged, in technical language, that they had killed and 
murdered George A. Ashburn, "contrary to the laws of said 
state, the good order, peace and dignity thereof.'' 

The trial proceeded for a month, able and distinguished 
counsel having been employed on both sides. It was watched 
with intense interest in all parts of the state. All the wit- 
9 



130 V WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

nesses for the Government who testified to any material fa(;tfl, 
were shown, by their own evidence, to have been exposed to 
the influence of torture or fear, or the promise of immunity 
and freedom. W. A. Duke, against whom more positive tes- 
timony was adduced than against any other defendant, was 
able to demonstrate by incontestable proofs and a multitude 
of witnesses, that he was forty miles from Columbus, on the 
night of Ashburn's murder. General Meade then dissolved 
the commission on the pretext that civil government was 
about to be restored in Georgia, and the prisoners were 
abruptly discharged. 

This military prosecution of honorable citizens, so full of 
exasperating details, and conducted with such ostentatious de- 
fiance of all rights of freemen, was not calculated to attract 
to the government the support of law-abiding people. 

At the presidential election of 1868, the people of Georgia 
gave a majority to the Democratic electors, of 45,000, and the 
supremacy of that party in the state has been maintained at 
every subsequent election. 

When the General Assembly met in January, 1869, the 
Governor in his message, stated that he had advised Congress 
that the reconstruction acts had not been fully executed in the 
state, that the members should have been required to take the 
oath (commonly known as the iron-clad oath), prescribed for 
officers of the United States, that the members had decided 
their own qualifications and had made wrong decisions, and 
that the result was the defeat of the purposes of Congress, 
" these purposes having been the establishment of a loyal and 
Republican State Government,'^ etc. The Governor in this 
message enforcing these views upon the General Assembl}^, 
quotes with approval the sentiment that " it is certainly the 
duty of district commanders to take what the framers of the 
reconstruction laws wanted, to express as much as what they 
do express, and to execute the law according to that interpre- 
tation.'' And the Governor contrary to the opinion of Gen- 
eral Grant, recommended that the persons returned as elected 
in April should be reassembled, that the test oath should be 
enforced except those who had been relieved of their disabil- 
ities, (who according to General Meade were his friends); that 



EECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. 131 

this would restore the colored members ; that tlie body thus 
organized should decide upon the eligibility of the excluded 
members, and after the work of reconstruction should be 
completed, the test oath would not apply. This scheme was 
perhaps what his excellency desired rather than what he ex- 
pected at this time. It was not adopted. General Grant, the 
new President, was inaugurated in March of this year, and 
on the first Monday in December, the new Congress met. On 
the 22d of December the President approved an " act to pro- 
mote the reconstruction of the State of Georgia,'^ which was 
framed according to the plan outlined and recommended by 
the Governor. 

It did not prescribe the iron-clad oath, but it provided a 
test oath stringent enough to exclude some persons whom 
the people had elected. By this act the Governor was author- 
ized and directed forthwith by proclamation, to summon all 
persons elected to the General Assembly of the state as ap- 
peared by the proclamation of General Meade. The Governor 
on the same day (December 22d), issued a proclamation sum- 
moning all persons elected, &c., ^' who are qualified," to ap- 
pear at Atlanta on the 10th of January, 1870. A person 
designated as clerk j9?'o tem. was ordered to organize the Senate 
on that day, and the oaths were administered by a commis- 
sioner named by the Governor. Such Senators as could take 
the new test oaths were sworn as directed on the day ap- 
pointed, and the others were excluded. 

Mr. Conley was again elected president, and the two negro 
Senators were again in their seats. The president made an- 
other inaugural speech, in which he said : " The Government 
has determined that in this Republic, which is not, never was 
and never can be a democracy ; that in this Republic, Repub- 
licans shall rule." 

He seems to have adopted the sentiment of the Governor, 
expressed on a former occasion. 

In the House the organization proceeded under the auspices 
of A. L. Harris, who was detailed by the Governor for that 
purpose. Harris was a man from New England, of enor- 
mous girth, who recognized only such motions as he desired, 
and directed the proceedings according to his own taste. His 



132 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

will was the only parliamentary law. A member insisted that 
the House had the right to choose its presiding officer even 
for the purpose of organization. Harris suppressed him. The 
incident did not appear in the Journal, because he also took 
control of the minutes. (Senate Election Cases, p. 298.) 
He had the roll made by General Meade, called, and as each 
member appeared, Harris directed him to be sworn alone. 
When he grew weary, or for other reason wished to terminate 
the session for the dav, he announced that the House would 
take a recess until a time named by him. 

The new reconstruction act provided that upon ap])lication 
to the Government, the President should employ such mili- 
tary and naval forces as might be necessary to enforce and 
execute the acts, and General Terry was now the commander 
of the district. This officer, perhaps on the request of the 
Governor, convened a board of military officers, instructed 
to determine the qualifications of certain members of both 
Houses, and the finding of this board as to the eligibility or 
ineligibility of any member was enforced by the orders of 
General Terry, and reinforced by Harris. 

When the military officers had judged and determined the 
qualifications of Senators and Representatives elected by citi- 
zens, and the obnoxious members had been excluded from 
their seats, Harris, on the 26th of January, announced that 
the House would proceed to the election of a Speaker, and 
the election of Mr. McWhorter again took place. On the 
next day, the Speaker directed to be read to the House a 
communication from the Governor, presenting the names of 
the candidates who had received the next highest vote to that 
of each of the members excluded by the military orders for 
ineligibility. General Terry also supported this view, by a 
letter to the Governor, on the day following that of the com- 
munication of his excellency to the Speaker. At first the 
House, no doubt remembering that the Governor had re- 
garded it as a reproach to seat minority candidates on a for- 
mer occasion, refused to accede to Bullock's recommendation • 
but when General Terry threw his sword into the scale, the 
House obsequiously reversed its action, and twelve friends of 
the Governor, in this way were admitted. 



KECONSTEUCTION IN GEOKGIA. 133 

In March, 1870, the Judiciary Committee of the Senate of 
the United States made a report reviewing this organization 
of the General Assembly of the state, in which report it is 
held that such organization was not warranted by law in the 
following respects : 

" First: In the control and direction of its proceedings by 
Harris. 

*^ Second : In the exclusion from taking the oaths and 
from seats of three members who offered to swear in. 

" Third: In the seating of persons not having a majority 
of the votes of the electors/' 

And on January 23rd, 1871, the Judiciary Committee of 
the United States Senate, in reporting upon the credentials of 
Joshua Hill, H. V. M. Miller, Henry P. Farrow and Richard 
H. AVhitely, (the latter two having been elected by the Gen- 
eral Assembly after the last reconstruction in 1870), affirmed 
the former report, and decided that Georgia was a state in 
the Union and entitled to representation in July, 1868, and 
that Hill and Miller were entitled to their seats, and they 
were soon after admitted as heretofore stated. 

It thus appears that the Senate of the United States in 
December, 1869, concurred in an act entitled '^an act to pro- 
mote the reconstruction of the state of Georgia," and after- 
wards held that she was a state in the Union in 1868, and in 
that year lawfully elected Senators to the Congress of the 
United States. 

The last act imposed upon the Legislature of the state a 
requirement that it should ratify the fifteenth constitutional 
amendment, and it was done to order. 

From this time, the Governor and the General Assembly 
were on excellent terms, and the current of legislation encoun- 
tered no obstruction. His excellency had triumphed. The state 
was delivered into his hands. The strangers called carpet- 
baggers, the southern Republicans, called by a name still 
more odious, and the negro members, formed the majority of 
the Legislature, and between them and the executive there 
were the kindest relations, because he had given them power 
and a golden opportunity. The tax-payers almost to a man 
had voted against the persons who composed this majority. 



134 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

To these tax-payers, they were objects of very general execra- 
tion. If they had not been upheld by military power, they 
s, might have been carted about with placards on their backs, as 
were the men whom George the 3d aj)pointed to the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts. The allowance was nine dollars a day, 
to say nothing of mileage, free passes and other things. The 
session with occasional short intermissions, continued from 
January 10th, to the 25th of October. The expenditures 
made on account of the pay and mileage of members and 
officers amounted during the term of this Legislature to $979,- 
055 — a sum four or five times as much as was ever expended 
on the same account by any former Legislature. There were 
104 clerks, or nearly one clerk to every two members. 

The Constitution having conferred on the General Assem- 
bly the power to authorize the endorsement by the state of 
the bonds of private corporations on certain terms, there were 
passed at this session thirty-two acts which directed state en- 
dorsements to be placed on the bonds of as many different 
railroads. These endorsements so authorized with the con- 
tingent liability created by seven other acts previously passed, 
would have amounted to $40,000,000. All the railroads 
built under these acts collapsed with a single exception, and 
the latter would have been built without the aid of the state. 
All the bonds that were so endorsed, with the same exception, 
were endorsed iu violation of the terms prescribed by the 
Constitution, and of the acts providing for the endorsement. 
In order to hold together the combination of members who 
supported these measures, a resolution was passed requiring 
" that each and every bill in which state aid is granted, be 
retained by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the 
House respectively until each and every such bill is a(!ted 
upon, so that they may all go to the Governor at once." 
This arrangement pooled all their bills and consolidated all 
their supporting influences. It was a conspiracy which en- 
abled every member to command the vote of every other 
member who had such a bill. It was supposed to have been 
an inveution of the lobby. 

During this year, acts were passed authorizing the Governor 
to issue $2,000,000 of seven per cent, currency bonds upon 



EECONSTEUCTION IN GEORGIA. 135 

which to obtain temporary loans for immediate use, also $3,- 
000,000 of seven per cent, gold bonds for the purpose of re- 
deeming bonds of the state, and *' for such other purposes as 
the General Assembly might direct." These issues were made, 
it is to be remembered, although the ordinary revenues of the 
state were ample for all legitimate expenditures. Under 
another act passed this year, the Governor delivered to a rail- 
road company bonds of the state to the amount of $1,800,000, 
the state having already under another act endorsed the bonds 
of the same company to the amount of $3,300,000, and both 
acts were in conflict with the Constitution. 

At this session, on the recommendation of the Governor, 
an act passed releasing to certain claimants, on a worthless 
pretext, which could deceive no lawyer, property in the city 
of Atlanta worth a quarter of a million of dollars. The 
beneficiaries of this transaction were known as the ^' Mitchell 
Orphans." 

Among the new men of that epoch was H. I, Kimball, who 
having failed elsewhere to find scope and appreciation for his 
great gifts, brought them to Georgia in quest of the opportu- 
nities which tlie process of destroying a state and then rebuild- 
ing it afforded. His was the genius which undertook the 
construction of the railroad which has just been mentioned as 
the donee of so much favor from the General Assembly. Be- 
sides he had other roads in process of construction upon the 
credit of the state during his primacy, and in addition a grand 
opera house, and a great hotel, in the city of Atlanta. His 
recourse for the millions required for these enterprises was the 
credit of the state. The Legislature gave him charters, and 
bonds, and endorsed the bonds of his corporations at his 
pleasure. The state bought his opera house at a good round 
price, for a capitol. He was paid temporarily for this pro- 
perty in the currency bonds to relieve his urgent wants, and 
when the gold bonds were engraved and ready for circulation, 
his friend, the governor, gave him of these two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, with the understanding; that currency 
bonds to that amount should be returned. The latter bonds 
he neglected to restore. He became the financial agent of 
the state by Bullock's appointment, and hawked the bonds of 



136 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

state about In New York with remarkable freedom. In that 
capacity he went to that city, to take up currency bonds 
which had been hypothecated by Bullock, and to substitute 
the gold bonds. His letter of instruction directed him to cancel 
and return to the treasury the currency bonds. With one bank 
he made the substitution as directed, but instead of cancelling 
and returning to the treasury the currency bonds received of 
the bank, he applied one hundred and seventy thousand dol- 
lars of them to his own private use as colUiterals for loans. 
He deposited gold bonds to a large amount with other bankers 
who had currency bonds, but did not require the surrender of 
the latter before he gave up the gold bonds, and so two sets 
of bonds were held for the same liability. Some of these 
bankers were his own financial associates. 

He had received the state's endorsement of two hundred and 
seventy-five thousand dollars of bonds of a railroad company 
(other than that hitherto mentioned), and for some reason, 
having had an act passed changing the name of the company, 
he received the endorsement of the state on the bonds of the 
road under the new name amounting to three hundred thou- 
sand dollars, upon the promise that he would use them to ex- 
tinguish the first issue. The promise was not fulfilled, and 
the new bonds of the road went upon the market as addi- 
tional obligations of the road and of the state. 

When Bullock became Governor, the state owned a rail- 
road runniufj- frotn Atlanta to Chattanooo;a, which connected 

O CD / 

all the railroad systems of the state with the West. It was 
wrecked by General Sherman during the latter part of the 
war, but it had under the administration of Governor 
Jenkins, and at great cost, been put in excellent condition. It 
easily earned a net revenue for the state of three or four hun- 
dred thousand cfoUars a year. It paid into the treasury 
twenty-five thousand dollars per month during 1869, under an 
appointee of Governor Bullock (Col. Hurlbut) with all the 
embarrassments which that appointment involved. But Col. 
Hurlbut was not satisfactory to the Governor, and in defiance 
of warnings as to the character of Foster Blodget, the latter 
was appointed superintendent. The new superintendent of 
the road entered upon his duties on the first day of January, 



RECONSTKUCTION IN GEORGIA. 137 

1870. For the year 1869, Hurlbut expended in operating the 
road, §985,633.80. During the year 1870, Blodget's expendi- 
tures aggregated $2,043,293.87. He left tlie road in bad 
condition, and a debt of over half a million which the state 
had to pay out of the treasury. Not less than a million of 
dollars was lost by the change of superintendents. 

Under a provision of the Constitution, a poll-tax of 
one dollar was levied for educational purposes. The fund 
created by this tax, amounted in 1870, to ^268,000. In 1870 
it was used to compensate members of the General Assembly, 
and such teachers as were employed in the public schools of 
that year went without compensation. The children attend- 
ing schools during the year 1870 were 67,1 42 white and 10,351 
colored, aggregating 77,493. For the sake of comparison, it 
may be here stated that there were actually enrolled in the 
public schools of the state in 1888, of white children 200,768, 
and colored children 120,390, aggregating 321,896. 

In 1868, when Governor Bullock was installed, the debt of 
the state was $5,827,000. At the end of his administration 
the treasurer reported the debt to be $12, 450,000, and en- 
dorsed bonds in addition $5,733,000, aggregating $18,183,000, 
and the bonds of the state were no longer marketable, except 
at very ruinous rates. Now the bonds of the state bearing 
four and a half per cent, are worth in the market a premium 
of twenty per cent. 

Since 1870, the state road has paid into the treasury twenty- 
five thousand dollars every month, or six million in twenty 
years. 

The Governor during his term of three years, pardoned 
three hundred and forty-six offenders against the law. Some 
of these offenders received pardons before trial. He granted 
seven pardons in advance of trial to one man who pleaded 
then to seven separate indictments. These acts of the execu- 
tive did not tend to inspire confidence in the law, nor pro- 
mote the administration of jnstice in the Courts. 

The taxable property of the state in 1860 amounted to 
$672,322,777, in 1870 to $226,329,769, and in 1889 to $345,- 
000,000, exclusive of railroad property. Prosperity, such as 
this rapid and steady increase of wealth implies, is fair evi- 



138 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

dence that good government has followed the expiration of 
Governor Bullock's term. And the commerce of the state 
freed from the apprehension of misgovern ment, it is confi- 
dently believed, is twice as great as before the war. 

On the 3rd of October, 1870, Bullock a])proved an act en- 
titled ^' an act to provide for an election and to alter and amend 
the laws in relation to holding the elections." It was drawiT 
with great care. It provided that an election for members of 
the General Assembly, members of Congress and county 
officers should be held on the 20th, 21st, and 22nd day of 
December, thereafter. The continuance of the election for 
three days, without any registration of voters, gave great 
facility to repeating. One colored man is known to have 
voted thirteen times by the mere device of changing his hat 
and his name each time. 

The law further provided that the election should be held 
only at the Court House of each county, or in an incorpor- 
ated city or town by five managers, three of whom were to be 
nominated by the Governor, two by the ordinary of the county, 
and all of them were to be confirmed by the Senate. In 
those counties in which the ordinaries were of the Governor's 
party (and such was i;he case in nearly half of the counties) 
all the managers were selected by the same party influence. 
The act furthermore provided that the managers should have 
no power to refuse ballots of male persons of *' apparent full 
age," resident in the county, who had not previously voted, 
and it prohibited all challenges. It was stuffed with pains 
and penalties. 

The political campaign that ensued was memorable. It 
was not a race between two parties, either of which would 
have administered public affairs with honesty and justice in 
all departments. On the part of the Democrats, it was a 
struggle for good government. It was a situation in which all 
good citizens banded themselves together against profligacy 
and corruption and a disgraceful administration. On the other 
hand, the negroes were told by their leaders that their defeat 
involved the loss of their political privileges, and even of their 
personal freedom. It was a contest for supremacy between 
those who had always been masters, and those who had been 



KECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. 139 

their slaves. It was a trial in which if one side succeeded 
there would be an honest administration for all, and if the 
other succeeded, there would be ruin for ali. The instinct of 
caste also intensified the efforts of bcth parties. 

In Georgia the issue of such a struggle could not be doubt- 
ful. The victory was overwhelming. Xot a disorder occurred, 
and Btdlock's own managers counted the votes. Such rejoic- 
ing was never known before in Georgia. The Christmas-tide 
had brought a new redemption. 

Before the deputies of an indignant people could meet and 
confront him, Bullock had resigned his office and fled the 
state. 

And it may be truthfully said that reconstruction accom- 
plished not one useful result, and left behind it, not one pleas- 
ant recollection. 

H. G. Turner. 

Note. — The journals of the two houses of the General Assembly of the 
state, the reports of the Comptroller General and the Treasurer of the 
state, tlie messages of Governor Bullock and of acting Governor Conlev, of 
the years 1868, 1869, 1870, 1871 and 1872, and the reports and testunony 
submitted to the General Assembly in 1872 by the committee appointed to 
investigate the bonds of the state (Thomas J. Simmons, chairman,) and the 
committee appointed to investigate the administration and management of 
the VV^estern and Atlantic Eailroad (Milton A. Candler, chairman,) are 
cited as authorities. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA. 

rpHIS fragmentary history of the reconstruction period in 
X Florida opens about the time of the adjournment of tlie 
Constitutional convention of 18G8. 

The convention had left two factions in the Republican 
party, named after prominent leaders the Richards or Billings 
faction and the Osborn ring. The result of the bitter contest 
between them for the supremacy, during the days of the con- 
vention, was favorable to the followers and supporters of 
Osborn. 

The old party leaders of the ante-bellum days had been dis- 
franchised and silenced and there was no political organization 
in a condition to resist the Republican plan of controlling 
this and other Southern states by the negro vote, directed and 
managed by their party friends who had drifted southward 
with the Union army or had afterwards followed in its wake. 

The Osborn faction represented the more conservative ele- 
ments of the Republican party in Florida. Its leadership 
was among army officers, those holding Federal positions, and 
agents of the Freedmen's Bureau. Their opponents charged 
that they had used the influence and patronage of these posi- 
tions to advance their personal interests and likened them to 
" hungry wolves around a carcass," in their efforts to secure 
political promotion. 

Harrison Reed was their candidate for Governor, AVilliam 
H. Gleason for Lieutenant Governor, and Charles M. Ham- 
ilton for Representative in the Fortieth Congress. 

Liberty Billings was placed at the head of the ticket 
nominated by the faction named after him. 

The Democrats nominated as their candidate for Governor, 
140 



KECONSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA. 141 

Colonel George W. Scott, who had been famous as a bold 
cavalry leader during the latter part of the war, and was at 
the time of the election, at the head of a large mercantile 
business in Tallahassee. 

All the machinery of the election was in the hands of the 
Osborn faction. It was held under the ordinance framed by 
their convention. Horatio Jenkins, Jr., the president of the 
convention, was at the head of the Board which canvassed 
and announced the result. The inspectors continued the 
election, under the law, for three days and had the custody of 
the ballot boxes each night. Superior numbers did not neces- 
sarily decide the result. Ballot boxes were constructed with 
false bottoms for use in the large negro counties, where the 
Billings faction seemed to be preponderant, and though the 
aperture through which the votes were passed was carefully 
sealed each evening, and the key was ostentatiously entrusted 
to one who did not have the control of the box, an ingenious 
slide enabled the custodian, in the seclusion of his home, 
during the quiet of the night, to mould the majority at will. 

A sample of this contrivance was sent on to New York 
after the election and placed where the people might see one 
of the instruments through which the Congressional recon- 
struction was accomplished. 

The result of the three days' election, as announced by the 
Jenkius canvassing board, was the adoption of the Osborn 
constitution and the election of Reed, Gleason and Hamilton, 
notwithstanding the general belief, among the supporters of 
Billings and the Democrats, that this was not the true result. 
But they could only submit to the power of the general gov- 
ernment, and Reed entered upon his administration on the 
first day of July, 1868. The Legislature which was assembled 
rewarded Osborn by electing him to the United States Senate, 
and Adonijah S. Welch* became his immediate colleague. 

In his first message to the Legislature, Gov^ernor Reed 
heartily endorsed the plan of reconstruction of which he was 
the exponent and the Constitution which had been framed 
under it. He placed himself in decided antagonism to the 
old population who did not believe that the time had arrived 

* In some of the records this name is spelled Welsh. 



142 WPIY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

for universal suffrage. He semed to be fully aware of the 
diffiulties which surrounded him, but entered upon his work 
in a hopeful spirit, and he really seems, at the outset, to have 
desired to put his administration upon a sound and honest 
financial basis. With this end in view, he appointed as his 
comptroller, Colonel Robert, H. Gamble, a man of ex^xdlent 
financial ability, inflexible integrity, thoroughly identihcd with 
the state and her interests, and universally respected. He also 
appointed James D. Westcott, Jr., Attorney-General, and a little 
later an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. His father 
had been a United States senator, and though the younger 
Westcott had not then had an opportunity to make his mark, 
his future was full of promise, and all who had been brought 
into business contact with him had entire confidence in his 
ability and integrity, and in both respects his career justified 
this confidence. It was generally understood that these gen- 
tlemen severed no political ties and entered into no new 
political associations in accepting these appointments. 

The system of state government in 1860 was modest and 
inexpensive, adapted to the resources of a thinly-populated 
state, with a tax valuation of $67,529,231, of which 
$29,206,632 was the valuation placed on its slave property. 
The system included the following executive and judicial 
ofiicers with their salaries as stated : 

Officers. Salaries. 

Governor • $ 2,500 

Secretary of State, 800 

Comptroller, 1,100 

Treasurer, 800 

Attorney-General, 500 

Adjutant-General, 500 

Three Justices of the Supreme Court, at $2500 

each, *■ 7,500 

Five Circuit Judges, at $2500 each, 12,500 

Total, $26,200 

Under the administration of Governor Walker directly 
after the war, the salaries of the Governor and judges were 
increased to $3000 each, which increased the total amount 
of these expenditures to $30,700. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA. I43 

In 1869 the total tax valuation was reduced to $29, 700,- 
022, and the people were emerging from a war which had 
left them impoverished, yet the scale of expenditures for like 
salaries under the reconstructed Government was as follows : 

Officers. Salaries. 

Governor, I 5,000 

Lieutenant-Governor, 2,500 

Eiglit Cabinet officers, at |3000, 24,000 

Chief Justice, 4,500 

Two Associate Justices, at $4000, 8,000 

Seven Circuit Judges, at $8500, 24,500 

Total, $68,500 

Governor Reed, in his first message, asked whether the 
Government, notwithstanding this largely increased salary 
list, could be maintained without imposing any additional 
taxation upon the people and answered his own inquiry by 
attempting to demonstrate, with the aid of an imposing array 
of figures, that it could.* 

The following table will compare the financial management 
of his administration with that of some of his predecessors, 
and will prove how sadly his expectations went astray, and 
how strong a tide of extravagance or corruption carried the 
expenditures, far beyond his figures and his promises of good 
government. 

BECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE STATE FOR CERTAIN YEARS 

NAMED. 

Years. Receipts. Expenditures. 

1860 $115,894.89 $117,808.85 

1867 161,806.21 187,6d7.63 

1868 223,433.67 234,233.80 

1869 347,097.12 374,973.23 

1870 192,488.60 295,078.50 

1871 275,005.59 410,491.19 

1872 257,233.54 304,214.35 

Thus in the four full years of Reed's administration the 
annual expenditures averaged §346,189.32, as compared with 
Walker's only full year of $187,667.63, making an average 

^Assembly Journal, 1st Session, 1868, pp. 55-58. 



144 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

annual increase of $158,521.69. And notwithstanding the 
increased receipts, there was a deficiency of §312,932.42 
created in these four years. 

The first Legislature under the new Constitution, met 
shortly before the Governor was inaugurated, and was Re- 
publican in both branches. It contained some of the ele- 
ments of dissension that had been active ever since the strug- 
gle for office commenced in the party ranks, but there was no 
outbreak while the session continued. These intestine quar- 
rels were upon constantly shifting lines, and some of the most 
influential who had supported Reed against Billings were 
soon arrayed against him. This was largely owing to the 
immense patronage given to the Governor by the new Con- 
stitution. Under it he had the authority to appoint every 
state and county officer except the Lieutenant-Governor and 
the constables, and the Supreme Court decided that he could 
even appoint a Lieutenant-Governor in case of a vacancy. 
As there were many aspirants for every place, the di-sappoint- 
meuts were numerous and affi^rded am})le reason for an ever 
increasing list of malcontents, who were ready to array them- 
selves with the opposition. 

The following are some of the most important acts of leg- 
islation of this session, which require mention here. 

An election law manifestly framed in the interest of the 
party in power. It required no oath to check false or illegal 
registration. It promoted repeating. Though the new Con- 
stitution required a registration of the voters and the statute 
provided for one, it enabled any unregistered applicant to 
vote on the day of election if he was willing to swear that he 
had been registered. 

An issue of State bonds to the amount of $300,000, draw- 
ing interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, ostensibly 
to find the outstanding debt of the state. 

A law to control the official advertising of the state in 
favor of newspapers favorable to the administration. 

An act authorizing the Governor to employ as many spies 
and detectives as he saw fit. By its terms a secret fund was 
placed at his disposal, for which he was not required to give 
any official account. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA. I45 

The power of choosing the electors to vote for President 
and Vice-President was taken from the people and given 
to the Legislature. 

Various railroad, canal, steamboat, navigation and " im- 
provement" companies, were organized and liberal terms made 
with them in the shape of lands actually granted or author- 
ized to be granted by the Trustees of the Internal Improve- 
ment Fund, in whom the title was vested. 

The ill-will against Reed began to assume definite shape 
when the Legislature met to choose the electors in November. 
Brief as was their sitting they commenced impeachment pro- 
ceedings against him, but he was saved for the time by the 
Supreme Court which ruled that there being no quorum of 
the Senate present at the time the effort at impeachment was 
abortive. 

Lieutenant-Governor Gleason was at the head of the oppo- 
sition, and when thus attacked Reed was not inactive. His 
Attorney General, on the 19th of December, filed an informa- 
tion in the nature of a quo warranto against Gleason claiming 
that he had no rio-ht to the office of Lieutenant-Governor, be- 
cause at the time of his election he had not been a citizen of 
Florida for three years, as required by the new state consti- 
tution. 

Of course, this disqualification was well known to Reed 
when they were nominated ou the same ticket. They were 
both from Wisconsin, though the Governor first reached 
Florida. But the law was plain, and after a long legal fight, 
terminating in the United States Supreme Court, Gleason was 
ousted. 

Reed next attacked his Secretary of State, George J. Alden, 
who had arrayed himself openly with Gleason and other 
enemies of the Governor in the attempted impeachment. 
Alden was removed, and in selecting his successor Reed 
vastly increased his strength with the freed men, whom he 
had wholly ignored, up to this time, in his state appointments. 
Jonathan C. Gibbs, the new Secretary of State, was of 
African descent, a graduate of Dartmouth College, in New 
Hampshire, and though he had but recently come to the state, 
he had made a favorable impression upon those of his people 

10 



146 WflY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

with whom he had come in contact. They afterwards showed 
their appreciation of this recognition by giving Reed a larger 
share of their support. This appointment was distasteful to 
the white Republicans, but they did not dare to oppose it 
when it was afterwards sent to the Senate for confirmation. 

The Legislature held its second regular session in June, 
1869 ; Marcellus L. Stearns became the Speaker of the lower 
House. 

The record shows a bad state of feeling in the Republican 
ranks. 

The impeachment proceedings were revived and took 
definite shape. A committee was appointed to investigate the 
charges against the Governor, with power to take testimony. 
The majority of the committee, made up of three Republicans 
and two Democrats, reported that the evidence before them 
sustained two of the charges. 

One was that Reed had entertained a proposition from a 
certain person in Leon county, to appoint a friend as Clerk 
of the Court there, the person asking for the appointment to 
pay Reed five hundred dollars for the use of the state. The 
five hundred dollars w^re paid to Reed, the desired appoint- 
ment was made, but the money failed to reach the state 
treasury. 

The second was, that an amount of about seven thousand 
dollars, arising from the sale of certain Virginia and other 
state bonds, made under legislative authority by the Gover- 
nor, was paid into his hands in lawful money, but instead 
thereof Reed paid into the state treasury the same nominal 
amount in state scrip which was largely depreciated. 

It was charged that Gleason had failed to account for the 
funds which had reached his hands as Financial Agent of the 
State under the appointment of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion. 

It was proposed to investigate the election of Abijah Gil- 
bert, who had been chosen to succed Welch (or Welsh) in the 
United States Senate, and to proceed to another election, upon 
the ground that Gilbert's election had been effected by the free 
use of money. 

Charges of wholesale and retail bribery against different 



EECONSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA. 147 

factions and individuals were bandied about. Voters were said 
to have a regular market value, and the recognized leaders of 
the majority were ready, according to these accusations, to bar- 
gain for the passage or defeat of any measure that the money 
kings of the lobby were sufficiently interested in to support 
or oppose by these corrupt agencies. But though many of the 
outside world were ready to believe all that these statesmen 
charired ao^ainst one another, neither the accusers nor the 
accused could afford to continue the Kilkenny cat fight to 
the extinction of their adversaries. A settlement and a compro- 
mise was reached, and the assemblage beca.ue a happy family 
once more. 

The effort to elect a new United States Senator to contest 
Gilbert's seat was, after some ineffectual balloting, indefinitely 
postponed, but it was renewed and consummated at another 
session. Gleasou made a report of his financial doings which 
was accepted as correct. 

A bill was passed, giving Billings and Richards the per 
diem and mJleao^e, which the Constitutional Convention had 
denied them. The testimony against Reed was kept from 
the record and deposited in the office of the Secretary of 
State. And a negro member of the Assembly who had 
joined in the majority report against him offered a resolution 
that it contained nothing justifying an impeaclnnent. The 
adoption of this resolution terminated, for the time, the pro- 
ceedincrs ao-ainst the Governor. 

Just before the final adjournment the Governor was author- 
ized to negotiate a second issue of six per cent, bonds to the 
amount of two hundred thousand dollars. 

The history of this period should contain a full account of 
the complication? arising from the sale of some of the rail- 
roads belonging to the Internal Improvement System of the 
State and the manao-ement of the trust fund which was in the 
hands of the Governor and some of the members of his cabi- 
net, and had been granted to the state by the liberality of the 
general government. The subject is full of interest, and the 
writer may enter more fully upon it at some other time. In 
this connection he will confine himself to a few references to 
the matter, here and there, to illustrate the general misman- 



148 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

agement, recklessness and dishonesty which characterized this 
reconstruction period. 

In March, 1869, the Pensacola and Georgia railroad was 
sold by the trustees, to the great injury of the people living 
in the counties along its line. A large portion of the stock 
iwas owned by these counties and it was controlled by the 
county commissioners who were Reed's ai)poi uteres and who 
made no effort to protect it. The sale was announced to be for 
cash but the purchasers were allowed to make payment in un- 
matured bonds, greatly depreciated, worth thirty-five or forty 
cents on the dollar, which were received at their face value. 
The deed was delivered while there was an unpaid balance of 
the purchase money of four hundred and twelve thousand 
four hundred dollars still due, and it was only collected after 
a tedious and expensive litigation, ending in the Court of last 
resort at Washington, and carried to a successful termination 
in better days, after the sceptre of power had been taken from 
the Republican reconstruction ists. The purchasers rerpiired 
additional legislation to perfect their schemes, and some of 
them were mixed up with many of the scandals of the day. 
The Supreme Court of the United States, which had occasion 
to consider all the facts of these transactions, says with 
reference to two of the most conspicuous actors in this business : 
^'Littlefield and Swepson have both shown themselves capable 
of the most shameful frauds." * 

At the legislative sessions of June 1869 and January 1870 
an arrangement was made by which the new corporation, into 
which the purchased roads was merged, was to obtain state 
aid to the amount of four million dollars in state bonds. Bri- 
bery and corruption were at these sessions with open hand. 
Littlefield handled plenty of money, and the statesmen of all 
shades of color vv^ere unwilling to bestow upon him as a gratu- 
ity the valuable privileges which he was able and* willing to 
pay for. 

So much was said about the matter that the grand jury of 
Leon County, where the Legislature met, felt bound to take 

* The following cases will throw light upon this railroid litigation: 
Anderson vs. i^tate of Florida, 91 U. S. 667; Railroad Companies vs. 
Schutte, 103 U. S. 118 ; Littlefield vs. Trustees of I. I. Fund, 117 U.S. 419. 



KEC0X5TRUCT10N IN FLORIDA. I49 

notice of it at the Fall term of the Court in 1870. The 
record of the Circuit Court shows that a cabinet officer, two 
state Senators and General Littlefield himself were indicted 
for bribery connected directly and indirectly with this railroad 
legislation. Littlefield was charged with paying Reed twelve 
thousand dollars for approving his bill. Senator Charles H. 
Pearce, of Tallahassee, a negro preacher, generally known as 
Bishop Pearce, was indicted for offering bribes to other brothers 
in black to induce them to vote against the impeachment of 
Keed for his alleged bribery as well as other crimes. Pearce 
was tried before a jury upon one of these indictments and 
found guilty, and on appeal to the Supreme Court, the judg- 
ment against him was sustained. But he was afterwards par- 
doned and was one of the counted in electors who voted for 
Hayes and Wheeler in 1876. 

The zealous State's Attorney who directed the investigation 
which resulted in these indictments soon after lost his official 
head, and Pearce was the only one of the accused persons 
who was ever brought to trial. 

The regular session of 1870 found the treasury on the 
verge of bankruptcy and the administration torn by a contin- 
uation of its internal dissensions and weakened by the alien- 
ation of the conservative influences which had met Reed's ad- 
vances and promises of good government in a friendly spirit. 

The taxes were payable in Comptroller's warrants and 
Treasurer's certificates, known as state scrip. An economical 
management of the finances would have kept this scrip from 
serious depreciation. But the constantly increasing expendi- 
tures, so far beyond Reed's own figures, carried its price 
steadily downward. By this time it sold at fifty cents on the 
dollar, and often for less when there was no immediate 
demand for it for the payment of taxes. The evil was 
increased by the officials who handled the people's money, 
from the Governor downward. Many of these financial offi- 
cers were among the most active in trading in it, and thus 
depreciating the state's credit to their personal gain. The 
money that reached the hands of these official speculators was 
transformed into the depreciated scrip by the time it reached 
the treasury. 



150 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The following statement, based upon the Comptroller's 
Report, will give some idea of the ratio of increase of the 
state expenditures : — 

Expenses. 1860. 1869. 

Legislature, $11,057.00 $42,959.90 

Officers of Legislature, . . . 1,580.00 5,655.80 

Printing of do. ... 4,500.00 17,205.49 

Stationery of do. ... 455.58 1,799.00 

Total, §17,592.58 $07,620.19* 

Thus it appears that the printing alone, under the new 
order of things, cost about as much as the entire legislative 
expenses had formerly amounted to, and the increase in the 
printing and stationery accounts occurrcnl at a time wlien 
ignorance and illiteracy barred no one from membership in 
Senate or Assembly. 

The Governor had hoped to provide for the increasing ex- 
penses by the sale of the bonds which the Legislature had 
authorized, but the wasteful extravagance of the Government 
soon became known in business circles throughout the country, 
and he was successful in getting but small relief from this 
source, and only upon most unf-ivorable terms. The liittlefield 
and Swepson issue of four millions, which was ready for the 
market at fifty cents on the dollar, if no better terms could be 
obtained, seriously embarrassed the negotiations of the other 
state bonds. 

The Comptroller stated in his annual report that there was 
no money in the treasury, and that the resources of the state 
"were much weakened by incompetent and irresponsible 
assessors and collectors of revenue.'' f 

The Treasurer stated that the delinquent list was ruinously 
large, and that the blame rested mainly upon the revenue 
officers of the state, whom he plainly intimated were deficient 
in good business qualifications and integrity. In finding a 
cause for this, he says, "Under the disqualifying clause of 
the Fourteenth Amendment, it has been, and is, impossible, 

^Assembly Journal, third session, 1870, Appendix, p. 8. 
t Assembly Journal, 1870, Appendix, p. 5. Same, p. 10. 



KECONSTRUCTION IX FLORIDA. 151 

in many counties of the state, to find men competent for these 
places.'' It will be borne in mind that the amendment re- 
ferred to excluded most of the ante bellum population from 
holding office, and left the responsibility of government with 
the freedmen and their new Republican allies. 

Reed was still kept under the shadow of impeachment. 
The majority of the committee appointed to investigate the 
charges of dishonesty, corruption, malfeasance and incompe- 
tency preferred against him, reported that they were sustained 
by the evidence, but for the time he was spared, on a close 
vote by the numerical strength of his faithful black allies. 

About this time the Governor and other trustees of the 
Internal Improvement Fund incurred the discipline of the 
United States Circuit Court. 

They undertook to aid some of the wild cat corporations 
which had been chartered by the Legislature by giving them 
large quantities of land or selling it at nominal prices. A 
large creditor of the fund, Francis Vose of Massachusetts, 
who held bonds issued by the trustees in aid of the Florida 
Railroad Company, filed a bill complaining of the mal-ad- 
ministration of the trust, alleging the w^aste and destruction 
of the fund by selling at nominal prices the lands by the hun- 
dred thousand and even million acres, and the diversion of 
the funds comino; to their hands from its lawful and lesfiti- 
mate use. It was prayed that the fraudulent conveyances be 
set aside, that an injunction be granted to restrain the trustees 
from further waste, and that the fund be taken from them and 
placed in the hands of a receiver. 

On the sixth day of December, 1870, Justice Woods granted 
the injunction. It recites the following acts: '^ You the said 
trustees are misappropriating the funds belonging to the said 
trust, are improperly and fraudulently misa})propriating the 
same, are selling and transferring said land in amounts and 
manners and for considerations that are wholly inconsistent 
with and violative of said act ; that vou are donatino^ and dis- 
posing of the same for merely nominal prices and for scrip 
and state warrants not recognized as the lawful currency of 
the United States.'' It goes on to recite an engagement for 
the sale of one million one hundred thousand acres of the 



152 WHY TPIE SOLID SOUTH? 

trust lands, " at the nominal price of ten cents per acre." It 
goes on further to charge, " And that thus you the said trus- 
tees are wasting and destroying the land and the fund so 
vested in you by the said act of 1855 and by the foregoing 
and by other lawless and fraudulent acts are diverting the 
moneys which have come and are coming into your hands by 
virtue of said trust from the payment of coupons in the order 
in which they fell due," etc. A penalty of $10,000 for con- 
tempt was fixed in case the injunction against the continuance 
of these wrongful acts was disobeyed. 

Notwithstanding the injunction, all of the trustees, except 
Col. Gamble, on the tenth day of February, 1871, '' for and in 
the consideration of the sum of one dollar to them in hand 
paid," conveyed to one of the companies, with which they had 
been contracting, 1,360,600 acres of the trust land. There- 
upon the complainant, Francis Vose, brought the matter to the 
attention of the Court by petition, and Justice Woods, on the 
seventeenth day of April, 1871, made an order requiring the 
disobedient trustees to show cause why they should not be 
held in contempt. 

The conveyances were declared void, a re conveyance of 
the lands to the trustees was ordered, and in June, 1872, the 
vast Internal Improvement Fund of the state was taken from 
the trustees and placed in the hands of a receiver, who was 
continued in charge until after the Republican party went 
out of power. Under a different management of the affairs 
of the state these unfortunate complications were unravelled 
and the litigation was terminated. 

By the same order an attachment was granted against the 
trustees who had signed the objectionable deeds and at the 
December term, to which it was returnable, the people of 
Florida had the mortification of seeing their Governor and 
several of the members of his Cabinet arraigned as criminals 
at the bar of the Court, and though no actual punishment 
was inflieted upon them, no order was ever made relieving 
them of the charge of contempt. 

After these conveyances had been declared void and the re- 
conveyance of the lands had been enforced by the Court, some 
of the parties applied to have restored to them coupons of the 



EECONSTRUCTION IN FLOEIDA. 153 

Internal Improvement bonds which had been accepted as 
money in their attempted purchase. The application was 
finally considered after the Democrats had come into power, 
and the new trustees resisted the motion to restore the coupons 
and demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Court that many 
of tliem had been paid and cancelled before they had been thus 
used as purchase money, and by some crooked and dishonest 
course had passed from the custody of the state officials and 
had again been received when their true status must have 
been known and should have been a matter of record. The 
Court very properly denied the motion to restore the 
coupons.* 

After the adjournment of the regular session of 1870, a 
paper purporting to be an Act of the Legislature, signed by 
the Governor, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of 
the Assembly, was found in the office of the Secretary of 
State with the acts that had reached tliere in due course of 
leo;islation. It was entitled "An act to authorize the Gov- 
ernor to ask for and receive the Agricultural Land Scrip 
from the United States.'' 

It was a forgery. No such act had been passed. No bill 
of this title had been introduced, though one having a similar 
purpose had been before the Legislature, but fiiiled to become 
a law. The Trustees of the Agricultural College, which was 
established at the same session, to secure the benefit of the 
wise educational provision made by the Congress, were vested 
with power to control this scrip, and it was transferred and 
assigned to them and their successors as a basis for the sup- 
port of the college. The effi^rt to divert it to the Governor's 
possession was probably suggested by the desperate financial 
condition of the state. 

C. T. Chase was the State "Superintendent of Public In- 

* The reader is referred to the records of the cases cited in the note 
which went to to the Supreme Court of the United States for a fuller state- 
ment of the facts relating to the injunction and receivership. ♦ 

Trustees vs. Greenough, 105 U. S., 527. 

Union Trust Co., vs. Southern. 1 tt g a r-t iVr. iqi 
Inland N. and I. Co., and Trus- [ ^- ^- ^"P- ^t- ^^t^^ti' 
tees of I. I. Fund. J ^^^^^^^ ^^''^' ^^^^- 



I 



154 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

striiction. He went to Washington and called on Secretary 
Cox to arrange for receiving the scrip, as one of the Trustees 
of the Agricultural College. He found that the Governor 
had already claimed it under the forged statute. The matter 
was considered and deliberated and at last came before the 
President and his Cabinet. The following extract from one 
of Mr. Chase's letters will show the impression made upon 
them by this unparalleled proceeding. 

" On my return from New York, the Secretary informed 
me that he had been favored with several interviews with His 
Excellency, Governor Reed, and a written communication 
about the Land Scrip, that he, the Secretary, had brought the 
matter up before the Cabinet, and that General Grant and 
Attorney-General Hoar, with others participated in the dis- 
cussion, and that the final conclusion arrived at was, that the 
scrip should not be issued under that claim, but that one point 
remained undecided, to wit : ' Whether the Secretary, being an 
executive officer of the United States, could go back of the cer- 
tificate of the Secretary of State under seal of state and inquire 
into the validity of a law.' At a subsequent interview, the Sec- 
retary informed me that Attorney-General Hoar had decided 
that question in the negative, therefore, if he took any action 
in the matter, he should be obliged to recognize the document. 
Yet in his own mind, he was morally certain, from all that 
he had learned, that it was not a law, and that if it were, 
he should still feel that it was wrong for him to issue the 
scrip to the Governor to be used in the manner which the 
Executive informed him he purposed to use it; that was 
in connection with the general finances of the state, and that 
he had, or should, so inform His Excellency."* 

The Governor foiled in his efforts to get the scrip, came 
home to call the Legislature in'extraordinary session, so that 
some further scheme might be devised for keeping the wheels 
of government in motion. The friends of the college, how- 
ever, rallied and prevented him from getting authority to use 
tliese educational funds for ordinary state purposes. 

Much interest was felt in the approaching election for a 

* Senate Journal, Extra Session 1876, page 62. 



RECONSTEUCTION IX FLORIDA. 155 

Representative in Congress and a Lieutenant-Governor to fill 
the vacancy caused by the ouster of Gleason, which had been 
temporarily filled by the appointment of Edmund C. Weeks 
by the Governor. Samuel T. Day for Lieutenant-Governor 
and Josiah T. Walls for E-epresentative, were the Republican 
candidates. The Democrats nominated William D. JBloxhara 
for Lieutenant-Governor and Silas L. Niblack for Represen- 
tative in Congress. Niblack was elected by a majority of 
22S, and Bloxham by a majority of 64. But the work of 
the people had to undergo the manipulation of a counting 
board. The returns from nine counties, eight of them Dem- 
ocratic, were held back and did not reach the State Capitol, 
officially, till the result was announced and the defeated Re- 
publicans had received certificates of election. 

Bloxham challenged Day's title in the courts and finally 
gained his office by the judgment of the Justices, the majority 
of them being of Republican antecedents. 

Niblack contested Wall's seat and the records of the Forty- 
second Congress will show that he was declared elected and 
was seated. But the Republican majority delayed their just 
action until the closing days of the last session. 

The most shameful part of this affiiir was the arrest and 
prosecution of P. W. White, Judge of the Circuit Court, in 
the circuit in which the state capital was included, who, upoa 
complaint of Bloxham, had issued an injunction to restrain 
the counting of the vote until all the returns had been 
received. It was charged that his official act was a violation 
of the Federal election laws and the machinery of the United 
States Court was corruptly and wickedly used to hinder the 
due course of justice and facilitate the effi>rts of the conspira- 
tors. After their purpose had been accomplished the prose- 
cution of Judge White was not further pressed. 

The fourth regular session of the Legislature was famous 
for the contests for seats and the unblushino; disreoi;ard of the 
will of the people by the Republicans. The Democrats had 
elected a majority of the Senators but the election machinery 
was supervised by a returning board whose majority was 
Republican and the usurper, Day, was the presiding officer. 

Two regularly elected Democrats, Sutton and ^laloney, 



156 WHY THE SOUpD SOUTH? 

were denied their seats. A third, Ross, was seated upon liis 
certificate, but was afterwards ousted on a contest, by exchid- 
ing from the count a Democratic precinct, upon the groiuid 
that the clerk was ? non-resident, aUhough he was a duly 
registered voter. The contestant iu this case, Johnson, was 
seated when only half of the Senators were present, as shown 
by the yea and nay vote on the question of adojiting the 
committee's report on the subject, although the Supreme Court 
had, but a short time before decided, that a majority of the 
full number of Senators, authorized by the Constitution, alone 
constituted a quorum, and that a less number could only 
enforce the attendance of absentees or adjourn. 

Two Republicans claimed the right to represent the Duval 
County District. W. PI. Christy had the certificate and was 
seated, but was ousted by Horatio Jenkins, Jr., on the fourth 
day of the session. Christy had been supported by one wing 
of the Republicans aided by Democrats who believed him to 
be a more conservative man than his opponent. Jenkins was 
seated by accepting the results of the famous Yellow Bluff 
fraud. 

A forged return which added two hundred and fourteen to 
Jenkins' vote was substituted in place of the true return, on 
the way from the voting-precinct to the Court House. With- 
out this fraudulent addition Jenkins was defeated. The in- 
spectors appeared before the county canvassers and pronounced 
the signatures to this return to be forgeries, and it was re- 
jected. The guilty tool who committed this crime was tried and 
convicted, though the State Senate, with all the facts before 
it, had wilfully accepted the forgery and cast aside the honest 
return. The same spirit was exhibited in the lower House. 

After Gleason had been driven from the office of Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, he desired to continue his personal influence 
in the Legislature, where he had inaugurated many ''• im- 
provement " schemes while presiding over the Senate. He 
claimed a home in the remote county of Dade, wdiere he and 
his friends held all the county offices. At the election W. H. 
Benest was regularly elected to the Assembly. No one at 
home denied his right to the seat. He was delayed on his 
journey and reached Tallahassee a day or two after the Legis- 



KECOXSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA. I57 

latnre had met, and to his surprise found Gleason recognized 
as the member from Dade, and serving as chairman of the 
two most important committees, on the Judiciary and on 
Finance and Taxation, besides having a membership in others 
of nearly equal importance. Gleason was not in the state on 
the day of the election, and was not then a candidate for the 
position. On coming to his county afterwards he pretended 
to call a special election, io^noring that already held. The 
Governor alone had this power under the law. Those in the 
secret went through the sham of an election, and with a cer- 
tificate of the result he presented himself on the first day of 
the session, and was admitted on this piece of paper, worth- 
less upon its face, and held his seat until the final adjourn- 
ment. Benest was vigilant in pressing his rights, but could 
not even get a report from the Committee on Elections till 
the very last day of the session.* 

At the regular session of 1872 the Comptroller reported a 
most discouraging condition of the state finances. The war- 
rants issued for the past year were $135,486 in excess of the 
receipts. The rate of state taxation, which had been 16f 
cents on the hundred dollars in 1861, and 50 cents in 1867, 
had been increased to $1.37.t The bonded indebtedness of the 
state was increased from §466,364.63 in 1868, when Reed 
became Governor, to $1,269,973.33, besides the railroad issue 
of four millions which had not yet been declared illegal. The 
outstanding warrants and certificates had, in the same period, 
increased from $57,492.32 to $458,8*92.20. 

The burden of taxation was made heavier by a system of 
equalization of valuation. The Comptroller thus, speaks of 
the high rate of taxation and of this system : ^' We have 
resorted to a rate of taxation under which the people suffer 
and every branch of industry is crippled.^' ''And w4ien it is a 
fact that the property paying these taxes is not valued by its 
owners, but byiin entirely impracticable system, and an en- 
tirely incompetent body, both in state and counties, it is not 
surprising that its owners should be dissatisfied." "The 

* Assembly Journal, 5th Session, 1872. Appendix, pages 1-6. 
fThis was in addition to the county tax which in many counties was 
larger than the State tax. 



158 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

average value of property, both real and personal, has de- 
creased since 1870, yet the aggregate value for the basis of 
taxation is increased $49,737.31/' 

The Governor complains in his message that more than 
two-thirds of the bonds issued in aid of Littlefield's road had 
been wasted without making any real progress in the work. 
He says : '' It appears that the bonds were entrusted by the 
company to one of the firms of swindlers who abound in 
New York, which, by fraud and villany, have diverted much 
of the proceeds from the work on which they were issued, 
and there remains but $1,200,000 for the purpose of extend- 
ing the road beyond the river."* And he might have truth- 
fully added that none of it was expended in road-building or 
improvement on this side of the riv^er. 

The impeachment proceedings were renewed and reached 
their culminating ])oint at this session in the exhibition of 
twelve articles, and a few days later four additional ones, 
charging the Governor, among other things, with conspiring 
with Littlefield and others to embezzle moneys belonging to 
the state, accepting bribes, defrauding the state, and falsifying 
his own official acts. By a unanimous vote the Assembly 
adopted the articles, and a committee was appointed to im- 
peach him, before the Imr of the Senate of high crimes and 
misdemeanors, incompetency, malfeasance in office and conduct 
detrimental to good morals. His suspension from office fol- 
lowed. Prominent among the members of the committee which 
preferred these charges was a citizen of African descent named 
John Wallace, who was afterwards in the State Senate, and has 
since published a work on '^Carpet-bag Rule in Florida," in 
which Reed is represented as carrying on a constant struggle 
for the right against the corrupt men who at this period con- 
trolled and dictated the policy of the Republican party. 

The Legislature adjourned without trying the impeachment 
case, leaving the reins of government in Day's hands, who 
had been counted in as Lieutenant-Governor, to the exclusion 
of Bloxham. This situation was satisfactory to Reed's ene- 
mies, for a state election was approaching, and the control of 
the official patronage would have enabled them to dictate the 

* Assembly Journal, 1872, p. 35. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA. I59 

state and Congressional nominations and the l^ational offices 
for the ensuing four years. But there was an obstacle in the 
way. Bloxham's just claim to the office of Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor was being vigorously pushed and the final decision of 
the Supreme Court could not be much longer delayed. His 
counsel had first proceeded by mandamus to compel a correct 
canvass of the votes, but, when on the threshold of victory, 
the law under which the canvass should have been made was 
surreptitiously repealed. The Court, though clearly stating 
Bloxham's right, would not direct the Board to proceed under 
a law which no longer existed. The new action which had 
been immediately commenced Avas soon to be decided, and the 
result must give the state a Democratic Governor unless the 
impeachment could be dismissed. Terms were made with 
Reed. Day called an extra session of the Legislature to meet 
April 23d, 1872. On the fourth of May it was decided that 
the continuance of the impeachment case without trial to 
another session was in effect a discharge and acquittal of the 
Governor, and he was restored to his office, but he was never 
relieved of the opprobrium of the impeachment charges. 

The expected judgment in Bloxham's favor was rendered 
June 1st, and for seven months, after all the duties of his 
office had terminated, he enjoyed the barren title of Lieuten- 
ant-Governor. 

The nominating conventions met during the summer. 
Bloxham was the Democratic candidate for Governor and 
General Robert Bullock, now a member of the 51st Congress, 
was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor. The new apportion- 
ment gave Florida an additional Representative in Congress 
and the nominees were Charles W. Jones, who afterwards 
represented Florida in the Senate, and Silas L. Niblack, who 
was still engaged in his contest in the 42d Congress. 

Owing to the strife in the carpet-bag element of the 
Republican party, it was deemed prudent to select a 
candidate for Governor from among the Southern white 
membership, and Justice O. B. Hart was selected. The 
carpet-baggers were represented by M. L. Stearns, who had 
been speaker of the Assembly, who held the second place on 
the ticket, and by W. J. Purman, who was a candidate for 



160 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Representative in Congress. The froedmcn received recog- 
nition by the nomination of J. T. Walls as the other can- 
didate for Representative. Reed was appeased by a vote 
endorsing his administration and a hollow promise of the 
succession to Osborn's seat in the Senate. 

The Democratic victory of 1870 and the character of the 
immigration which had since flowed into the state made it 
manifest that unless some extraordinary means were used 
Bloxham and Bullock would lead their i)arty to victory. 

The Republican gain over the Democrats was in the 
counties having a large negro population. In two of these, 
Leon and Jefferson, where there had been no increase of 
population by immigration the Rejiublican vote was increased 
from 2,824 to 4,566 while the Democratic vote was only 
increased from 1,202 to 1,379. This remarkable gain'was 
enough to give Hart the majority declared in his favor of 
1,553. There was a like increase in other countities of the 
black-belt sufficient to offset the entire increase in the Demo- 
cratic vote. 

As the whole machinery was in the hands of the Republi- 
can office-holders, inspectors and clerks, it was easy to arrange 
for such a result. The same voting lists were at every pre- 
cinct in the county; the precincts were conveniently arranged 
near the centres of the black population ; there was no obstacle 
in the way of voting at every precinct within reach, even in 
the same name ; there were plenty of duplicate names on the 
lists; and a few skilled manipulators had no difficulty in 
managing an army of docile and obedient voters so as to pro- 
duce the result determined upon before the election. 

The Republican ticket was declared elected, and Governor 
Hart was inauo-nrated in 1873. 

His first message showed that he fully realized the deplor- 
able condition of the state. Outstanding warrants for cur- 
rent expenses were fearfully increasing at double rates. There 
was no money in the State Treasury even to pay express 
charges or telegraph fees. Back taxes to the amount of 
$598,000, had failed to reach the treasury, and he urged that 
assessors and collectors be compelled to do their duty. He 
uses these words : '' I doubt if there is another state in which 



RECONSTRUCTION IN FLORIDA, 161 

SO great a proportion of the revenue is withheld from the 
treasury after it has been paid to the proper officers by the 
tax-payers." * 

He charges revenue officers with substituting depreciated 
scrip for moneys collected from the people, and falsely swear- 
ing that these identical warrants were actually received, ^^ thus 
setting at defiance the criminal code, cheating and thieving 
the public for the purpose of pocketing the difference, and 
adding perjury to fraud without fear of punishment." f 

With reference to the bribery, which was notorious and 
which had been forced upon his attention while a member of 
the Supreme Court by the Pearce Appeal, he says : ^' If our 
officers and Legislators are not beyond the reach of those 
who would tempt them from their duty, then indeed have the 
temples of law and justice become the dens of thieves," % 

He speaks thus of the frequent election frauds : " It has 
come to be regarded as a matter of grave concern, whether 
the choice of officers depends upon the voice of a majority of 
the people of the state or counties, or whether it depends 
upon the skill of a board of canvassers in receiving or re- 
jecting, upon petty and technical grounds the evidence of the 
result." § 

In conclusion he calls upon them . to endeavor to lift the 
state " out of the slough of insolvency into which she has 
fallen, not through any lack of resources, or fault of her own, 
but through the criminal neglect and malfeasance of those to 
whom she had entrusted the duty of receiving from her people 
the means of support which they, the people, are ever ready 
to afford her." |i 

The sequel demonstrates that Hart, with all the good in- 
tentions which })ermeate this message, was powerless to effect 
a reform under the circumstances which surrounded him. He 
had reached his high office by the votes and methods of the 
men whose crimes he was condemning. The bankruptcy of 
the state, the incompetency and malfeasance of her Republi- 
can officials, had not weakened the party under whose admin- 
istration this state of things had become possible. The hand- 

* Assembly Journal, 6th Session, 1873, pp. 33-41. 
tDo. p. 41, ip. 44. I Do. p. 44. || Do. p. 47 

11 



IQ2 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ful of white leaders had no difficulty in controlling its vast 
negro majority, and their inexperience in governmental matters, 
the dense ignorance and stupidity of the large mass of them, 
their deficient sense of honor and integrity, their faihu'e to 
appreciate the duties and responsibilities of their new citizen- 
ship, made their numerical strength a constant menace to good 
government, as long as they were under the control of politi- 
cal leaders, whose misgovernment had called forth these 
severe rebukes from one whom they had so recently elevated 
to the Gubernatorial office. 

Wallace in his work on *^ Carpet-bag Rule" gives an in- 
teresting account of this session. To use his own language : 
" This was a gala day for the colored brother." S. B. Conover 
became Speaker of the Assembly, and during the session was 
chosen to succed Osborn in the Senate. Wallace says that 
money was freely used in this contest but that the Republican 
rivals of Conover had the largest supply. He was among the 
tempted but when offi^red money as an inducement to stand 
firm in the Conover ranks he virtuously promised to do so with- 
out money and advised the tem]:>ter to "buy those who desired 
to sell" and the briber "went flying to other parts of the bat- 
tle-field to use the money where it would do the most good/' 

This work shoufd be read by all who seek to know the inside 
history of this corrupt period. Many of its details are inac- 
curate and there are manifest errors and mistakes of fact when 
the author gets beyond his personal experience, but within 
that range there is no reason for doubting his disclosure of 
plots, intrigue and villany. It would require the exj)eri- 
ence in crime of a Titus Gates or the imairination of a Munch- 
ausen, to invent all the details of this history. 

Gne of the election contests of this session justifies the 
severe language already quoted from the Governor's message. 
Dade county occupies the extreme south-eastern part of the 
Florida peninsula. In territorial extent it contains more 
than seven thousand square miles, but according to the previ- 
ous census of 1870, the population was only 85. Yet it was 
entitled to a member of the Assembly, and with the adjoin- 
ing county of Brevard, with a population of 1216, formed a 
Senatorial District. 



EECONSTRUCTIOX I.^ FLORIDA. 163 

It was in counties like these, thinly populated and remote 
from communication, that the Republican workers plied tlieir 
schemes to control the Legislature. Only about nine of the 
thirty-nine were safely Republican after the disabilities result- 
ing from the war had been removed. Enouo;h of the others 
to make the desired majority were managed or manipulated 
by some sharp or crooked device on the day of election, or 
treated by the counting out process applied later. 

The Benest contest came from this same county of Dade. 

November 5th, 1872, E. T. Sturtevant was Judge of the 
County Court. Gleason, who had occupied Benest's seat, was 
now Clerk of the Circuit and County Courts ; together they 
composed a majority of the Board of County Canvassers 
and, in the absence of the third member, the entire Board. 

Only one precinct was opened in the county on the day of 
election. At that Sturtevant was one of the inspectors, and 
Gleason was clerk. Both were candidates at the election, the 
former for the Senate, the latter for the Assembly, against 
J. J. Brown, the Democratic candidate. When the election 
closed it was regularly announced, in the presence of the 
voters, that the majority of the votes had been cast against 
Sturtevant and Gleason, who had each received fourteen 
votes, and this result was duly certified, and the two defeated 
candidates signed the required certificates, acting under oath 
as election officers. 

Before the meeting of the County Board, the defeated candi- 
dates prepared a petition to themselves as a County Board, alleg- 
ino^ that certain foreigners had voted without producing their 
na^uj-alization papers. These were old citizens of the county 
who had frequently voted before, and no one at this election 
had challenged their right to vote, or asked for their papers. 

The Board acted on this petition and deducted the number 
of votes cast by these citizens from the votes of their success- 
ful opponents without taking evidence as to how they voted, 
thus reversing the result, and as County Canvassers certified 
this false result in their own behalf to the State Capitol. 

Israel M. Stewart, the Democratic candidate for Senator, 
who was thus robbed of his majority in Dade, received in his 
own county of Brevard 39 out of the G9 votes, but none was 



164 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

cast there for Sturtevant. In order to complete this outrage, 
the Brevard returns were held back by the Republican officers 
of election, or detained by the United States mail agents till 
the State Canvassers had met and announced the election of 
Sturtevant and Gleason, and they were accordingly seated, 
upon their minority vote of 14 from a single precinct in Dade. 

The majority of the Committee on Elections of the Assembly 
simply reported that " we are of the opinion that William 11. 
Gleason is entitled to his seat.'' They denied none of the 
conclusions of fact reached by the minority. Their report 
was adopted and Gleason retained the seat against Brown. 

There was no final determination of Stewart's contest 
against Sturtevant during the first session of the Senate. The 
term was for four years, and it was renewed at the second ses- 
sion two years later, but without effect. 

Wallace was chairman of the Committee on Elections which 
reported in favor of Gleason, and was in the Senate at the next 
term, where he supported Sturtevant wlienever action was at- 
tempted in Stewart's favor. In his book he mentions his 
vote in Sturtevant's behalf as one of the only two acts com- 
mitted during these days of reconstruction which he regrets. 

Governor Hart was in feeble health when he commenced 
his term and went to a more Northern clime after the adjourn- 
ment of the Legislature. In his second Message he spoke of 
the state finances in rather a more encouraging tone, but there 
was little actual improvement, and his hopes for the future 
were not realized under his successor, nor would they have 
been had he lived, for the personal integrity of one man could 
not check the prevailing tide of extravagance and corruption. 
He died soon after the adjournment of the Legislature of 
1874, enjoying the respect of all who knew him, and amid 
general expressions of regret. 

The new Governor, Marcel 1 us L. Stearns, had been promi- 
nent among the extreme men of his party all through this 
reconstruction period. He w^ent to Florida as an officer 
of the Freed men's Bureau, and this position had given him 
influence with this class of voters. His administration was 
but little more than a continuance of those which preceded 
it. His personal integrity was assailed even more bitterly 



EECONSTEUCTION IN FLOEIDA. 165 

than that of ReecVs. Purman was high in the counsels of 
his party, and had abundant opportunity to know what his 
associates had done. He delivered a speech in the House of 
Representatives, March 9th, 1875, in which he assailed 
Stearns bitterly and brought some serious charges against 
him. But these accusations injured neither with his party 
friends. The Republican Convention of 1876 nominated 
Stearns for Governor and Purman for reelecticm to the Na- 
tional House of Representatives, and they went lovingly 
through the campaign on the same ticket, notwithstanding 
the wickedness or the slanders of the past. 

Before this history closes some further mention should be 
made of the abuse of the process of the United States Courts 
to aid the plans of the Republican leaders. I shall relate but 
two instances. 

At a municipal election held in Tallahassee, during this 
period, a number of influential Democratic voters were absent. 
The election was close. The absence of these voters was pro- 
cured by summoning them to appear on the morning of the 
election as witnesses before the United States Court at Jack- 
sonville, more than one hundred and sixty miles distant. 
They were not used or needed as witnesses but were detained 
till the election was over and the Republican ticket elected, 
and then dismissed. 

The State Senate was, on one occasion, organized in a sim- 
ilar way. It was nearly evenly divided ; there were several 
contested seats. On the morning of the day fixed for the 
meeting of the Legislature, Senators Crawford and McCaskill 
were arrested on fictitious charges and carried to Jacksonville 
by a Deputy United States Marshal. They were held there 
upon the warrants of arrest till the Republicans had completed 
their plans and organized the Senate, and were then discharged. 

The closing months of Stearns' administration will ever be 
memorable, on account of the great election contest of 1876, 
which was felt throughout the whole country. The author 
has already given an account of it in a speech delivered in 
the United States Senate during the Fiftieth Congress. 
Stearns headed the Republican ticket and George F. Drew 
was the successful Democratic candidate. 



] QQ WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

The Democratic State Committee could not prevent the 
action of the Electoral Commission, but when their state 
ticket was counted out, they forced the Canvassing Board, 
through the process of the State Supreme Court, to make an 
honest count. It is pleasant to be able to add that a majority 
of the justices who rendered the judgment against this Boai'd 
were Republicans in their political faith, but they adminis- 
tered the laws without reference to politics. The inaugura- 
tion of Drew as Governor and Noble A. Hull as Lieutenant- 
Governor and the organization of a Democratic Legislature 
followed and the state was redeemed. 

Reviewing the history of this period from 1868 to 1876, 
we find a record of extravagance, corruption and wasteful ex- 
penditure. The enormous amounts taken from the tax-payers 
and raised by mortgaging the industry of the future were all 
consumed with nothing to show for the outlay. No ])ublic 
buildings, no institutions for the unfortunate, no colleges, 
normal schools, or seminaries were built or aided from the 
state treasury during this period. The school system, though 
liberally supported by taxation, had disappointed the reason- 
able expectations of the people. Crime had gone unpunished. 
Property was unsafe. Farmers almost abandoned the effort 
to raise meat because of the constant depredations upon their 
stock. Many of the magistrates were incompetent, some were 
notoriously corrupt, and thieves and depredators w^ere not 
seriously alarmed at the ])rospect of a conviction before a 
negro jury. The effect is illustrated by the following table 
which gives the valuation of personal property at different 
dates, in sev^en of the large agricultural counties, compris- 
ing some of the wealthiest portions of the state at those 
times. 

VALUATION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY. 

Counties. 1867. 1870. 1873. 1875. 

Alachua, . | 750,944 $542,874 $871,422 $348,349 

Gadsden, . 83^,666 493,848 392,865 338,760 

Jackson, . . 667,371 544,940 495,400 415,970 

Jefferson, . 816,858 753,302 506,325 415,512 

Leon, . . . 1260,820 945,623 903,088 662,884 

Madison, . 493,195 446,256 372,647 363,478 

Marion, . . 694,291 539,489 515,143 444,347 



5,519,145 4,266,132 3,556,890 2,989,300 



RECONSTEUCTION IN FLORIDA. 167 

This amounts to a net reduction of over 45 per cent, in 
eight years. 

The receipts and expenditures of tlie four years covered by 
the administrations of Hatt and Stearns were as follows : 

RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE STATE FROM 1873 TO 1876. 

Years. Receipts. Expenditures. 

1873 $564,405.81 $536,192.55 

1874 401,679.68 292,037.37 

1875 384,735.24 290,261.43 

1876 286,280.58 260,187.19 

Total $1,737,101.31 $1,378,978.54 

Showing an average of expenditures of $344,744 63 per 
annum as compared with the average of $346,189.32 during 
four years of Reed's administration. The county expendi- 
tures and taxation were additional to those of the state enu- 
merated in these tables. 

This sketch will be closed by comparing some of the figures 
of this period of reconstruction and Republican mis-govern- 
ment with the results that followed as soon as the Democrats 
came into power under George F. Drew and continued under 
successive administrations. 

When the Republicans went out of power, they had estab- 
lished in nine years under their school system 676 schools, 
attended by 28,444 scholars. The amount raised for schools 
by taxation and their management of the state school fund 
during their last year of power was $158,846,36. 

The following table exhibits the subsequent progress of the 
educational interests of the state. 



SCHOOL STATISTICS OF THE STATE FOR CERTAIN YEARS. 

Years. Schools. Pupils. Expended for Schools. 

1876 676 28,444 $158,846.36 

1880 1,131 38,315 141,934.16 

1883 1,479 51,945 249,054.08 

1888 2,219 63,848 484,110.23 

The following table exhibits the taxes assessed during the 



168 



WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 



last three years of Republican rule, and the three succeeding 
years of a Democratic administration. 



Oovernor. 

Hart& 
Stearns 



Drew 



STATE TAJSES ASSESSED FROM 1873 TO 1880 

Years. Amounts. Totals for 3 Years. 

1873 $422,994.59 

1874 429,318.09 

1875 408,684.71 

1876 380,858.69 $1,641,856.08 

1877 330,595.60 

1878 265,240.98 

1879 249,879.80 

1880 ...... 237,420.12 



Saved in 4 years under Democratic administration 
Average per year ....•* 



1,083.136.50 
558,719.58 



139,679.89 



The following table exhibits the steady increase in the tax- 
able property of the state since the last year of the Stearns' 
administration. 



VALUE OF THE REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY IN THE STATE OF 
FLORIDA AS ASSESSED FOR TAXATION AT DIFFERENT DATES. 

Years. Total Amounts. 

1876 $29,688,337 

1880 31,157,846 

1883 55,249,311 

1888 87,552,447 

Samuel Pasco. 



CHAPTER yil. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 

THE Legislature of Tennessee was in session at the time of 
the Presidential election in 1860. There was no public 
man in her borders at that time v/ho was either an avowed 
abolitionist or a disunionist, per se. The successful candidate 
for the Presidency had received no vote in Tennessee. The peo- 
ple were apprehensive of the grave results which eventually 
followed that election ; but they determined to wait. While 
other states south were passing ordinances of secession and 
appealing to Tennessee to join them, she declined hasty 
action. As late as February, 1861, her people expressed 
their desire to remain in the Union by a majority of 67,054 in 
a total vote of 116,552. They declared at the same time 
their opposition to holding a delegated convention to consider 
and determine what should be done in the impending emer- 
gency, by a majority of 11,875. They opposed secession, and 
equally opposed civil war. Had no gun been fired, Ten- 
nessee would not have changed her position. 

When, however, the officer in command of Fort Sumter 
in Charleston harbor refused to recognize the Confederate 
authority, and President Lincoln ordered supplies to him, the 
approach of the steamer " Star of the West '^ with these sup- 
plies drew the fire of Confederate guns, and when this was 
quickly followed by a call from Mr. Lincoln upon Tennessee 
for volunteers to march upon the South, the shock came, and 
was electric. In less than sixty days the people of the state 
had voted to separate from the Union and to become a member 
of the Confederate States by a vote of 104,913 to 47,238. 

In less than a year, March, 1862, Andrew Johnson was 
transferred from the United States Senate (which he had not 
before left) and installed as Military Governor of Tennessee by 

169 



170 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

appointment of the Secretary of War, under the ])rotection 
of the Federal Armies. His authority as defined in his 
appointment was, "- to exercise and perform within the limits 
of the state, all and singular, the powers, duties and functions 
pertaining to the office of Military Governor, including the 
power to establish all necessary offices, tribunals, etc." 

September 19th, 1863, the President sent him a supple- 
mentary authorization " to exercise such powers as may be 
necessary and proper to enable the loyal people of Tennessee 
to present such a republican form of State (jovernmentas will 
entitle the state to the guarantee of the United States there- 
for, and to be protected under such state government by the 
United States, against invasion and domestic violence, all 
according to the Fourth Article of the Constitution of the 
United States." 

The office was new to the laws and history of the state and 
country. Its powers and duties were limited only by the will 
of one man, the occupant. As the Federal Armies advanced 
southward, Governor Johnson proceeded to make appoint- 
ments, and fill vacancies with loyal men. The vast majority 
of the offices were vacated upon the Federal military occupa- 
tion of the country. In truth the active duties and func- 
tions of the civil authorities were practically suspended in 
every part of the state open to a conflict of the opposing 
forces, and these parts embraced nearly its entire extent. 

During the years 1862 and 1863 the operations of the con- 
tending armies in and for Tennessee were not of such decisive 
character as to give permanent foothold to either. The pro- 
gress made, therefore, by the Military Governor toward re- 
storing civil administration, amounted to little. Towards the 
close of 1863 the Federal forces occupied the state from a 
line forty miles east of Kuoxville to Mem])his, with strong 
garrisons at both these points and at Nashville, Chattanooga 
and other points. Their successes elsewhere during the sum- 
mer and fall campaigns of this year in the capture of Vicks- 
burg and relieving the Mississippi river from hostile ob- 
structions from source to mouth, the repulse of Lee in 
Pennsylvania, besides their holdings in the Carolinas and 
northeastern Virginia, induced the President to seriously con- 



KECONSTRUCTIOX IN TENNESSEE. 171 

sider tlie rehabilitation of such states or parts of states as 
were deemed permanently under the Federal control. He 
determined to issue a proclamation of amnesty as the first 
step in this direction. This document accompanied his 
annual message to Congress, and was dated the 8th of De- 
cember, 1863. It embodied his plan of reconstruction, and 
promised " pardon and restoration of property, except as to 
slaves, to all who directly or by implication have participated 
in the existing rebellion, with certain exceptions specified, 
upon their taking an oath to "henceforth support, protect 
and defend the Constitution of the United States and the 
Union of the States thereunder; abide by and support all 
acts of Congress passed, and all proclamations of the Presi- 
dent made with reference to slaves, so far and so long as not 
repealed, modified or held void by Congress or by decision of 
the Supreme Court." He further promised that whenever a 
number of persons in and of the states at war with the 
Union, not less than one-tenth of the vote cast in the Presi- 
dential election of 1860, and being qualified voters under the 
laws previous, to secession, shall reestablish a State Govern- 
ment, republican in form and in nowise contravening the said 
oath, ^'such shall be recognized as the true Government of 
the state,'^ etc., etc. This was, substantially, Mr. Lincoln's 
plan of reconstruction. 

The first step subsequent to its promulgation, taken by the 
Military Governor of Tennessee, was a proclamation, dated 
January 26th, 1864, ordering county elections to be held on 
the first Saturday in March. In this proclamation he an- 
nounced that these elections were ordered in Tennessee as a 
state of the Union ; prescribed the qualification of voters and 
an oath to be taken by each elector before voting. This oath 
varied from the one prescribed by the President, in requiring 
the affiant to support and defend the Constitution of the 
United States, and to promise to '^ conduct himself as a true 
and faithful citizen of the United States,'' ardently desiring 
the suppression of the present insurrection and rebellion 
against the Government of the United States, etc., etc. 

The marked difference between the oath required by the 
proclamation of the President and that of the Military Gov- 



J 72 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ernor attracted attention, and the question arose as to whether 
the amnesty oath wouhl not be sutlicient for a voter, without 
taking that prescribed by the Governor, and was submitted 
to the President, who replied, "In county elections you had 
better stand by Governor Johnson's plan, otherwise you will 
have conflict and confusion. I have seen his plan/' 

This election was a failure. Comparatively few of the 
qualified voters appeared at the polls. At military posts, such 
as Nashville and Memphis, Government employees who had 
been in the place six months, contributed the larger part of 
the vote, small as it was. Davidson County (including the 
Capital of the state) cast only 1229 for Sheriff out of 6665 
votes cast in 1860. Only a few counties voted at all. 

In the meantime there were certain Unionists, persons who, 
in the earlier stages of the war, had made themselves conspicu- 
ous in opposition to the then-existing order of things, and who 
were now im])atient because the state was not resolved to har- 
monious relations with the Union. They were not warriors, but 
statesmen ; refugees at one time, and, at another, in some co- 
terie or meeting of persons of like situation, bewailing 
together the deplorable condition of the country. These men 
were never contented with the movements of the armies nor 
with the measures of civil administration. Their hearts were 
filled with bitterness, and their minds with plans to crush and 
destroy the adversary. There was another class of Unionists, 
who remained at home and attended to their business as best 
they might, giving no conspicuous demonstration of elation 
or depression, in the varying exigencies of war, thoughtful 
and watchful observers of events, patriotic in their hearts and 
true to their convictions. 

The Presidential campaign followed in 1864. On the 2nd 
of August of that year, a meeting was held at Nashville, 
which called a convention to be held on the 5th of September, 
to consider the reorganization of the state, and the question 
of putting out an electoral ticket and undertaking to hold an 
election for President in November. 

This convention met pursuant to the call, only a few coun- 
ties holding primary meetings to appoint delegates. It was 
largely composed of the military element, the 1st Tennessee 



KECUNSTRUCTION IX TENNESSEE. 173 

Cavalry, 2nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry, and the 1st Ten- 
nessee Infantry sending representatives for 33 counties. But 
the convention adopted a resolution admitting as qualified 
to participate in its deliberations, "all unconditional Union 
men, who are for all the measures of the Government looking 
to putting down the rebellion, from diiferent parts of the 
state/' 

The convention adopted resolutions favoring the appoint- 
ment of agents to look after the interests of soldiers and their 
families; the enrollment and organization of the militia; the 
immediate abandi^nment of slavery, and its prohibition by 
amendment of the state constitution ; the removal from office 
of all disloyal men ; the holding of an election for President 
by the Union people, and the oath prescribed in March to be 
required of electors ; and requesting the Military Governor 
to execute the resolutions in such manner as he might deem 
best. The convention also nominated a Lincoln and Johnson 
electoral ticket, and appointed an Executive Committee of 
fifteen — five from each grand division of the state. 

Another ticket fav^oring McClellan and Pendleton was sub- 
sequently brought out by parties not in sympathy with the 
convention, but was withdrawn before the election. 

On the 7th of September, 1864, during the session of the 
convention, the Military Governor issued his proclamation 
declaring his purpose to proceed to appoint officers and esta- 
blish tribunals, as he had heretofore done, in all the counties 
and districts of the state, wherever the people gave evidence 
of loyalty and a desire for civil government, all officers to take 
the oath last prescribed. 

On the 13th of September he issued a proclamation order- 
ing the enrollment of the militia of the State in accordance 
with the wish of the late convention, between the ages of 
18 and 50 years, the magistrates to be the enrolling officers, 
and those failing or refusing to serve without good excuse to 
be sent beyond the limits of the state. 

On the 30th of September the (military) Governor issued 
his proclamation, under the request of the convention, order- 
ing an election for President and Vice-President of the United 
States to be held at the county-seat or other suitable place in 



174 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

every county in the state, in the following November, at which 
all citizens and soldiers, six months resident in the state pre- 
vious to the election, being white, and citizens of the United 
States and loyal to the Union, were authorized to vote. '* To 
secure the ballot-box against the contamination of treason," 
the oath prescribed by the convention was required of the 
voter. This remarkable product of a popular meeting thus 
became a law controlling the highest right of the citizen, and 
compelled the elector to swear tliat he was an active friend of 
the Government of the United States, and the enemy of the 
so-called Confederate States ; that he ardently desired the 
suppression of the rebellion against the United States, etc., 
etc., with great amplification of detail. 

Upon the appearance of this proclamation the McClellan 
and Pendleton electors united in a protest addressed to the 
President, in which they asserted that the method prescribed 
was contrary to the election laws of Tennessee ; that it ad- 
mitted persons to vote not allowed by the law ; that it pro- 
vided for holding the election at only one place in the county, 
when the law required it in each civil district ; that the oath 
required was unusual and a test oath. They further pro- 
tested against the interference of the militarv Governor Avith 
the elective franchise, and asked that all military interference 
be w^ithdrawn '' so far as to allow the loyal men of Tennessee 
a full and free election, meaning by the loyal men of Tennes- 
see those who have not participated in the rebellion or given 
it aid and comfort, or who may have complied with such 
terms of amnesty as have been offered them under your au- 
thority.'^ 

This protest was presented to the President on the 15th of 
October by John Lellyett, of Nashville, one of the signers 
and one of the McClellan Presidential electors. From the 
accounts of the interview which reached the public at the 
time, Mr. Lellyett did not find Mr. Lincoln in the amiable 
frame of mind usual with him, or that jocose disposition with 
which he often looked upon the gravest concerns. The ver- 
bal interview closed without a satisfactory reply to the protest. 
A formal written answer was given on the 22d of October, 
which closed with : ^' Except it be to give protection against 



KECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 175 

violence, I decline to interfere in any way with any Presiden- 
tial election/' The effect of these events was the withdrawal 
of the McClellan and Pendleton ticket from the race in Ten- 
nessee. The Presidential election which followed in Tennes- 
see was a farce. The people refrained from participating in 
a proceeding so far from the free and unrestrained elections 
to which they had been accustomed. They did not look upon 
this as having the sanction of law, or as possessing proper au- 
thority and regularity. At Nashville, as an example, the 
vote was only 1228, and came largely from Government em- 
ployees. By joint resolution of Congress the electoral vote 
of Tennessee was not received and counted, on the ground, as 
stated in the j)reamble, that the state had " rebelled against the 
Government of the United States, and was in such condition 
on the 8th day of Nov^ember, 1864, that no valid election for 
electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, 
according to the Constitution and laws thereof, \vas held 
on said day.'' 

These fruitless steps towards reconstruction in Tennessee 
were discouraging, the more so from the fact that a decided 
difference of opinion and feeling had developed among the 
leading Unionists, shown in the two presidential electoral 
tickets. A period had now arrived that required more deci- 
sive action. The election of the militaiy Governor to the 
Vice- Presidency would soon call him from the state and from 
his official duties as Governor. 

The Executive Committee appointed by the September 
convention, published a call in December for the assembling 
of a convention at Nashville, on the 9th of January, 1865, to 
take counsel as to the best method of restoring the state to its 
proper relations with the Union, It was not expected 
that it would do more than to provide for a constitutional 
convention composed of delegates to be elected by the peo- 
ple, with authority to act in all matters relating to the or- 
ganic law. 

The convention assembled on Monday, the 9th of January, 
pursuant to the call. It was composed, like that of Septem- 
ber, of comparatively few holding credentials from primary 
county meetings. It was in session five days. The result of 



176 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

its deliberations was: the adoption of an amendment to the 
State Constitution abolishing slavery and forbidding the 
Legislature to make "any law recognising the right of 
property in man ; " and a schedule which repeated the section 
of the Constitution forbidding the General Assembly to pass 
enancipat<on laws, annulled the military league made with the 
Confederate states, the state declaration of independence and 
the act of separation ; suspended the statute of limitations 
from May 6, 1861 ; provided that actions for torts begun by 
attachment might not be proceeded in without personal ser- 
vice of process on the defendants ; annulled all laws and ordi- 
ances of the second state Government, and forbade the Legisla- 
ture to pay any bonds, interest or debts contracted or issued by 
it ; and affirmed all civil and military acts of Governor Johnson. 
Provision was made for asubmission of ihis action to a vote of the 
people on the 22nd of February ensuing ; and in the event of its 
ratification, for an election of Governor and members- of the 
General Assembly, the latter to be voted for on a general ticket 
on the 4th of March, and to assemble on the 2nd of April, fol- 
lowing. The convention also nominated William G. Brownlow 
for Governor, and recommended a full legislative ticket in an- 
ticipation of ratification. This unprecedented, radical, irregular 
and unauthorized proceeding was attempted to be justified by an 
appeal to the Bill of Rights. 

The election was held on the appointed day, February 22, 
1865. Fifteen counties in East, twenty-one in Middle, and 
one (Shelby) in West Tennessee appear to have voted, to and 
with the vote of the soldiers, the result was : For, 25,293 ; 
against, 48. 

The vote of the state at the Presidential election in 1860 
was 145,333. This was considered and held as more than a 
compliance with the provision of the President's proclama- 
tion of the 8th of December, 1863, relating to reconstructing 
rebellious states by a number of loyal persons not less than 
ten per cent, of the vote cast in such state in the Presidential 
election of 1860, whereby the President came under special 
promise to guarantee Tennessee a republican form of govern- 
ment, and protect her against invasion and domestic violence. 
Governor Johnson, on the 25th of February, issued his proc- 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 177 

lamation declaring the amendment to the Constitution and 
the schedule duly ratified, saying, *' Complete returns have 
not yet been made, but enough is known to place the result 
beyond all doubt." 

The election was duly held on the 4th of March, and Wm. 
G. Brownlow was elected without opposition, receiving 23,352 
votes against 3.5 scattering, a falling off of 1,906 from the 
February election, but still within the guarantee clause of 
Mr. Lincoln's amnesty proclamation. The Legislativ^e ticket 
received the same as that for Governor ; as they were not 
elected by and from counties and districts as always in the 
past. The ballot containing the name of the Governor voted 
for, had also the names of twenty-five candidates for the 
Senate and eighty-four names of candidates for the House of 
Representatives, and the number cast for one was cast for all. 
By this method the Carter County member is voted for in 
Shelby, and vice versa. 

A point had now been reached where reconstruction was 
nominally an accomplished fact, dependent for permanency 
on the success of the Federal arms in the contest with the 
Confederate States. Up to this period only one object was 
professed by the Unionists of Tennessee, the restoration of 
the state's relations to the Federal Union as they existed prior 
to 1861 ; and that object had now been achieved, so far as 
those adhering to the Union could accomplish it. A Gov- 
ernor and General Assembly, elected by a popular vote, how- 
ever small, was about to assemble and start the machinery of 
a state administration in its old movements. The operations 
of the army in 1864 had left Sherman in undisturbed posses- 
sion of Georgia. The old army of Albert Sidney Johnston, 
under Bragg, Joe Johnson and Hood, at different periods, 
had been broken at Franklin and shattered at Nashville, and 
its bleeding remnants were making their way to North Caro- 
lina to join Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in a last show of re- 
sistance to Sherman's unobstructed marches through the 
Southern country. Everything, therefore, was bright and 
hopeful for the overthrow of the Confederate cause, and the 
complete success of the Federal armies. 

The policy tobe pursued in the administration in practi- 
12 



178 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

cally restoring the people to their civil rights and privileges, 
offered gronnds for differences of opinion and jndgment. 

The Legislature having convened on the 2d of April, on 
the 5th the Governor was inaugurated. 

In a few days the surrender of General Lee and the flight 
of the Confederate Government from Richmond relieved them 
of all anxiety on the subject of their tenure. Another few 
days brought the assassination of President Lincoln and the 
succession of Andrew Johnson to the Presidency. Events 
had so shaped themselves that the Governor and Legislature 
were afforded the most brilliant opportunity for the adoption 
of measures for the speedy return of the people to the occu- 
pations and to the orderly habits of times of peace. From 
the first to the middle of May, returning soldiers, with their 
pledges to be and to conduct themselves as peaceable and law- 
abiding citizens, began to appear, in search of the homes they 
had left four years before. Worn and foot-sore, hungry and 
penniless, tired of war's disasters and privations, the ex-sol- 
dier was ready and willing to keep his faith to his parole. He 
cherished no hostility to his fellow-citizens who had adhered 
to the Union, and were now in control of state affairs. He 
regarded it as his first duty to build up the waste that he had 
found, reconstruct his home and provide himself with a liveli- 
hood. He did not concern himself at that time with affairs 
of state. He was content to leave them to the hands into 
which they had fallen. He knew well enough the irregulari- 
ties, the assumptions and the unprecedented methods by which 
this power had been obtained, and accepted and justified it 
upon the broad ground of necessity. The circumstances at 
the time of the women, children and male non-combatants, 
exposed to any and every species of abuse and outrage, justi- 
tified the effort to organize civil government and furnish such 
measure of protection as the condition and abilities of the au- 
thorities would allow. He did not complain at the fact that 
the civil government he found at the state capitol was the re- 
presentative of not more than one-seventh of the voting popu- 
lation of the state. He knew well that with the prevalence 
of peace and order, the recuperative resources of the soil, the 
industry of the people, and the intelligence of the voters, the 



KECONST RUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 179 

evils apprehended would be avoided or soon corrected by the 
free and orderly expression of the popular will. The returned 
Confederate, therefore, was the friend of the established gov- 
ernment. He knew that it was henceforth to be his govern- 
ment ; and it became at once his interest as well as his desire 
to see it administered for the peace, happiness and prosperity of 
all. That such was not the case was not his fault. He went 
forward in submission to authority and in the path of peace. 

The Governor and Legislature took a different view of his 
mind and purposes. They looked upon him as a red-handed 
enemy to order, with a heart filled with war and hatred of 
peace, ready at any moment to overturn the existing order of 
things, and to do all sorts of ferocious acts. In this he was 
to be curbed by the most stringent and rigid means at their 
command. To exclude him from the ballot was one of the 
means used as most effective. The law enacted for tiiis pur- 
pose on the 5th of June, proscribed Confederates aud Con- 
federate sympathizers in the most comprehensive terms possi- 
ble to devise. The oath required to be taken by voters when 
challenged, by all judges of election and candidates for office, 
was as rigid and comprehensive as those previously required ; 
and practically disfranchised three-fourths or more of the 
people of the state. 

Besides the franchise law, acts were passed at this session of 
the Legislature, to punish speaking or printing scurrilous 
libel against the State or General Government, with fine and 
imprisonment and disqualifying to hold office in the state for 
three years; to authorize the sheriffs of the state to raise a 
posse of twenty-five men, or as many more as they might 
severally deem necessary as County Guards to consist of " un- 
questionably loyal men/^ and to redistrict the state under the 
census of 1860 into eight Congressional districts. Among the 
resolutions one of the first to be adopted was the amendment 
to the United States constitution abolishing slavery, which 
was adopted on the 5th of April ; also one confirming the ap- 
pointments made by the late military Governor, leaving it to 
the discretion of Governor Brownlow to issue writs of election 
to fill vacancies. On the t^lst of April a resolution w^as 
adopted requesting that the President proclaim the state to be 



180 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

no longer considered in a state of insurrection. This was fol- 
lowed on the 9th of May by a resolution calling upon the 
President for troops to guarantee Tennessee a republican form 
of government and to protect her against invasion and do- 
mestic violence. This Legislature also elected the executive 
state officers, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, and 
United States Senators, Judge David T. Patterson for the 
term expiring March 4th, 1869, and Jos. S. Fowler for the 
terra ending March 4th, 1871 ; and on the 12th of June ad- 
journed until the first Monday in October, 1865. 

Elected as this body was on a general ticket, the members 
were not generally of the most gifted order of men, most of 
them being wholly inexperienced in public affairs and igno- 
rant of the methods of legislation. There were some notable 
exceptions to this rule, but so many of these were radical in 
their views, that the voice of the conservative element was 
wholly lost in the mad currents of the hour. This ignorant 
and inexperienced majority had followed the radical lead in 
this first session and ena(;ted the laws and adopted the resolu- 
tions above noted, — the franchise act having passed the Senate 
by a vote of twenty to one, and the House forty-two to twenty- 
one. Still other and more extreme measures were introduced 
and warmly discussed without adoption. As an indication of 
the spirit cherished and manifested by the "radicals" toward 
the so-called rebels a bill was introduced into the House on 
the 18th of May and passed by a vote of fifty-eight to five to 
prevent persons from wearing the "rebel uniform,'' under a 
penalty of $5 to §25 for privates and §25 to §50 for officers, 
thus punishing the Southern soldiers, then beginning to return 
without a dollar in their pockets, for appearing in the only 
clothes they had. Bills were offered depriving ministers who 
aided or sympathized in any way in "the rebellion" of the 
right to celebrate the rites of marriage, and subjecting them 
to the payment of poll-tax, to work on public roads and to 
serve in the militia, which passed the Senate and was rejected 
by the House ; and also requiring women to take the oath of 
loyalty before a license should issue for her marriage. A bill 
prescribing a test-oath for plaintiffs in lawsuits only failed in 
the Senate by a vote of ten to eleven. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 181 

The interval between the 12th of June and the 2nd of 
October, 1865, gave the Governor and Legislature an oppor- 
tunity to witness the practical workino;3 of tiieir reconstructive 
legislation. During this vacation (August 3rd) an election 
was held under proclamation by the Governor, for Congress- 
men and to fill such vacancies as had occurred in the General 
Assembly. An opportunity was also afforded to observe the 
temper and demeanor of the large majority of the people who 
were disfranchised. These were found pursuing their voca- 
tions as best they could under the circumstances ; being 
really more concerned in providing the necessaries to sustain 
life than in who was to hold the offices, and enjoy the emolu- 
ments of public station. As a rule they were quiet and peace- 
ful. The courts in some localities had instituted proceedings 
a«;ainst some of this class for acts committed durintr the war 
and in a military capacity. Jn East Tennessee especially they 
were received with coldness, and, they had many personal 
grievances to settle. These were local, and mostly individual 
in their nature, and had no relation to the validity of the exist- 
ing state government, or the peaceful execution of the laws by 
the masses of the people. 

The (governor, on the 10th of July, in view of the ap- 
proaching August election, issued a proclamation, wdiich in- 
dicated his future action, warning the people that all who 
should " band themselves together to defeat the execution of 
the Act to limit the elective franchise will be declared in re- 
bellion against the state of Tennessee, and dealt with as 
rebels"; that the votes cast in violation of this law, ^' will 
not be taken into account in the office of Secretary of State "; 
that he would " treat no person as a candidate who has not 
taken the oath prescribed in the 7th section of the Ac*t., and 
filed it with the Secretary of State by the 3rd day of August, 
1865"; concluding with : ''And I call upon the civil author- 
ities throughout the state, to arrest and bring to justice all 
persons who, under pretence of being candidates for Congress 
or other office, are traveling over the state denouncing and 
nullifying the constitution and laws of the land, and spread- 
ing sedition and a spirit of rebellion.^' 

On the 12th of July, the Governor issued an " address to 



182 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the people of Tennessee," in which he reviewed the steps lead- 
ing to and defining the basis on which the present state 
government was established. The substance was that the 
Government of the United States, being bound by the Con- 
stitution to guarantee to each state a republican form of 
government, had a right to choose the form best adapted to 
the condition of the people and the means of putting it on 
foot. It is not for us to criticise or complain of the form 
or method chosen. It has done so and complied with its 
obligation. The President's plan of reconstruction is a 
model. The Governor states, that the convention of the 
9th of January, 1865, was the initiatory means chosen by 
the National Administration ; that the convention consisted 
of over 500 delegates, but numbers were not essential — the 
National Administration could have acted even through one 
man in this matter ; and that the State Government was 
forced upon the rebellious majority, for nothing but force 
was recognized by them. "And yet," he indignantly ex- 
claims, "aspiring politicians in their harrangues denounce 
this State Government as unconstitutional, and spurious, and 
a usurpation!" He did not fail to avow in this address 
his purpose to unseat, by military force, all officers elected 
in violation of the franchise law, and his purpose to see 
that Congressmen so elected should not take their seats. 

This August election was unattended by violence in any 
part of tlie state, and resulted in the election to Congress of 
Nathaniel G. Taylor, Horace Maynard, Wm. B. Stokes, Ed- 
mund Cooper, Wm. B. Campbell, Dorsey B. Thomas, Isaac 
R. Hawkins and John W. Leftwich, for the districts in the 
order named. The total vote cast in th,e state was 61,783. 

On the 11th of August and before the returns were received, 
the Governor, in pursuance of a purpose, hinted at in his 
proclamation of July 10th, and more openly avowed in his 
address of July 12th, issued a proclamation calling upon 
clerks, sheriffs and loyal citizens for information as to 
whether the registration had been in accordance with the re- 
quirements of the Franchise law. Acting upon information 
thus derived, he threw out, and refused to count, the votes of 
twenty-nine counties, casting a vote of 22,274, leaving the 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 183 

total legal vote, 39,509. The vote cast out was in every dis- 
trict, and applied to every candidate ; but changed the result 
in only one district — the sixth. 

Dorsey B. Thomas of Humphreys, received 2,805 votes, 
while Samuel M. xVrnell, of Maury, received 2,350. By the 
Governor's count, he discarded 2,284 of the vote of Thomas 
and elected Arnell by a majority of more than 1,000, and 
Mr. Arnell took his seat with the rest when they were ad- 
mitted on the 24th of July, 1866. They were all elected as 
Union men, as friends and supporters of the present State 
Government; but Taylor, Cooper, Campbell and Leftwich 
were conservatives, opposed to disfranchisement and test 
oaths, and in favor of a compliance with the terms of peace 
as made upon the cessation of armed hostilities; while the 
others were extremists, and denominated '^radicals'' in the 
parlance of the day. This action of the Governor did not 
pass without criticism and rebuke in the Legislature, though 
sustained by that body. It was truly characterized as an as- 
sumption of power unwarranted by law, unjustified by facts, 
and an act of despotic usurption, pure and simple. A minor- 
ity in both the Senate and the House demanded a showing of 
the papers on which this unauthorized, flagitious usurpation 
was based ; but the majority declined to yield to their 
demands. 

But neither the Senators nor Representatives from Tennes- 
see were admitted to their seats in the Thirty-ninth Congress 
at its opening on the first Monday of December, 1865, a few 
of the reasons for which there should here be briefly stated. 

From the day the oath was administered to him as Presi- 
dent, to the meeting and organization of this Congress, An- 
drew Johnson steadily pursued the plan of reconstruction for- 
mulated and adopted by President Lincoln prior to his death. 
In this he had every reason to expect the support of the 
friends of Mr. Lincoln ; and by it to speedily restore the 
late " rebel '^ states to their former constitutional places in the 
Union, and their proper relations to the Federal administra- 
tion. Under this plan the theory that the states had ever 
been out of the Union by pretended acts of secession, was de- 
nied, and it was contended that the power to execute the Fed- 



184 ^^^BT THE SOLID SOUTH? 

eral laws, had been temporarily suspended in these states by 
armed resistance ; that as soon as that resistance was over- 
come and ceased, the Executive .should see that the laws of 
the Union should be observed and enforced therein ; that the 
people should be afforded an opportunity in conventions to 
annul the acts and proceedings by which they had put them- 
selves in antagonism to the Federal authority, and to take 
such action as would conform their constitutions and govern- 
ments to the changes which the war had wrought in the Gov- 
ernment during its progress; that having done this and 
elected Senators and Representatives to Congress, it only re- 
mained for the two Houses respectively to judge of their 
election and qualifications in admitting them to their seats. 

Congress took a wholly different view of the situation, and 
refused to recognize the new state government. The Legis- 
lature met in adjourned session on the 2d of October. The 
Governor's message was hopeful in tone. He stated that the 
county clerks had been neglectful of duty in some instances, 
and advised that the franchise law be amended in some 
respects, but not repealed. He advised ^'fuU pardon to the 
masses — the young and deluded, who followed blindly the 
standard of revolt, provided they act as becomes their cir- 
cumstances." The unrepentant should suffer the five years of 
disfranchisement, while the active leaders " are entitled 
neither to mercy nor forbearance." There were some negroes 
he would now give suffrage, but he was opposed as unsafe to 
conferring the right on all. He still favored their coloniza- 
tion as the best disposition to be made of the race. The 
message was elaborate, and discussed at length the state's 
interest in railroads, turnpikes, schools, the public debt, etc. 

Up to this time the negro was a disagreeable subject to 
handle. While conforming the constitution to Lincoln's 
emancipation proclamation, in January, February and April, 
1865, the members of the Legislature, who largely composed 
the convention of January seem not to have anticipated the 
rapidity with which that question would swell in their hands. 
In his inital message. Governor Brownlow, had opposed the 
granting suffrage to the negro ; and had favored his removal 
from the United States, and colonization elsewhere by the 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 185 

general government. Such an idea as civil or social equality, 
had not been seriously entertained, and yet these questions were 
held to be of fully as high importance by the reconstruction- 
ists in Congress, as those relating to the " rebels " were by 
the reconstructionists in Tennessee. There was a strono- dis- 
position on the part of the majority of them, to avoid the 
issue. A prominent Senator from East Tennessee, early in the 
April session, introduced a resolution as the sense of the 
members that they would support no man for United States 
Senator who favored negro suffrage. All the rights he had so 
far acquired by obtaining his freedom were secured through 
the " Freedmen's Bureau/^ an institution created by Congress, 
administered by military agents. The first step was taken on 
the 25th of January, 1866, making him, with Indians, a 
competent witness in all the courts of the state, to the same 
extent as such persons are competent in the United States 
Courts by act of Congress. This w^as not adequate to the 
emergency then existing; and on the 26th of May, 1866, the 
Legislature gave the negro the right " to make and enforce 
contracts, to sue and be sued, to be parties and give evidence, 
to inherit and have full and equal benefits of all laws and 
proceedings for the security of person and estate,'^ to be pun- 
ished not otherwise for crimes and offences than white persons 
in like cases ; to be entitled to the same public charities as the 
whites ; but he might not serve on juries, nor go to the same 
schools with the white children. 

The chief objective point of legislation was to perpetuate 
the political power of the radical minority by excluding from 
the polls the majority. The Unionist minority had become 
hopelessly divided, as was shown by the defeat of one-half the 
radicals by conservatives in the August Congressional elections. 
An act to amend the act of June 5th, 1865, was therefore 
matured and passed on the 3d of May 1866. 

This amended franchise law disenfranchised all citizens, 
otherwise qualified, '^ who have voluntarily borne arms for, 
or given other assistance to, sought, accepted or exercised the 
functions of office under, or yielded a voluntary support to 
the so-called Confederate States of America, or any state 
whatever, hostile to or opposed to the authority of the United 



Xgg WHY TP.IE SOLID SOUTH? 

States Government/' provided for a commissioner of regis- 
tration in every county to be appointed by the Governor and 
removable at his pleasure ; and required the applicant for a 
certificate, authorizing him to vote, to prove by two witnesses, 
entitled themselves to vote under the law, that he is so quali- 
fied, and also take an oath that he '' was rejoiced at " the 
defeat of the Confederacy, with many otlier tests the phrase- 
ology of which is too ample to be quoted here. 

This legislation would indicate either, that the " rebels '' 
were a great deal more aggressive and dangerous than they 
were a year before ; or the radical numbers and strength were 
decreasing, and it became necessary to reduce the number of 
voters by creating additional restrictions and tests. To keep 
up the spirit of hate and bitterness, a resolution was oflPered 
and adopted by good majorities in both houses, "that Jeffer- 
son Davis, Jas. M. Mason, R. JM. T. Hunter, Kobert Toombs, 
Howel Cobb, Judah P. Benjamin, Jno. Slidell, Robert E. 
Lee and Jno. C. Breckenridge have justly forfeited their 
lives ; and that in expiation of their great crime, and as an 
example for all time, they deserve and ought to suffer the 
extreme penalty of the law and be held as infamous forever.'' 

All this harshness toward "rebels," and half-hearted friend- 
ship to the negro, however, was not sufficient tooj)en the doors 
of Congress to the anxiously awaiting Senators and Repre- 
sentatives from Tennessee. The Fourteenth Amendment to 
the Constitution of the United States was yet demanded. 
On the 19th of June, 1866, three days after its submission by 
Congress, the Governor issued his proclamation convening the 
Legislature to assemble on the 4th of July in extra session, 
to adopt or reject it. 

But the members of the House were slow in reaching the 
capitol, a number, though in the city, refrained from appear- 
ing in their seats, when in doing so their presence would 
bring about a quorum. The verbal orders to the doorkeeper 
to go out and bring in absentees were ineffectual, as tlie absent 
members eluded his search. This conduct of members exas- 
perated the Governor, who, July 14th, applied to General 
Thomas, the military commander of this department, for 
assistance to compel the refractory legislators to perform their 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 187 

duty. General Thomas referred this request to General 
Grant, at Washington. Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, 
replied, July 17th, '^The duty of the United States forces is 
not to interfere in any way in the controversy between the 
political authorities of the state, and General Thonaas will 
strictly refrain from any interference between them." 

Two members. Pleasant Williams, of Carter County, and 
A. J. Martin, of Jackson County, were in the city and about 
the capitol, but refused to participate in the proceedings, or to 
answer to their names on roll-call for the purpose of making 
a quorum, upon the ground that they were elected before this 
subject was presented, and they were unable to represent the 
will of their constituents without an opportunity of consult- 
ing them, which they had not had. AYarrants were issued 
for their arrest, and to be ^'brought before the bar of the 
House to answer for disorderly conduct and for contempt.'^ 
They left the city and were pursued to their homes, taken 
into custody, and brought to the House — Williams on the 
16th and Martin on the 17th. They still adhered to their 
position. Williams applied for and obtained a writ of habeas 
corjjus, returnable before the Judge of the Criminal Court, 
Hon. Thomas N. Frazier, who, upon hearing the case, dis- 
charged the prisoner from arrest. In the meantime, on the 
19th, and before the discharge of Williams, the Sergeant-at- 
Arms still holding the two members in custody within one of 
the committee rooms, communicating with the hall of the 
House, the roll was called and the vote taken, resulting in 
forty-three affirmative and eleven negative votes, Williams 
and Martin still failing and refusing to speak or to vote. 
The Speaker ruled, under this state of facts, that there was 
no quorum. An appeal was taken from the ruling, and the 
appeal was sustained. The Senate having adopted the amend- 
ment on the 11th, this ended the struggle at the capitol over 
the matter of a quorum, and was accepted as the ratification 
of the Fourteenth Amendment by Tennessee. 

Upon his discharge, Williams brought suit for damages 
in the Circuit Court of Davidson County, against each of the 
members who had contributed to his arrest, and when trying to 
serve the process the Sheriff was ordered from the Hall. 



138 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The House preferred articles of impeachment against Judge 
Frazier for high crimes, misdemeanors and malfeasence in 
office for his action in the habeas corpus case. He was 
tried by the Senate as a Court of Impeachment commencing 
on the*6th of May, 1867, convicted on the 12th of June and 
by the judgment of the Court, deposed from his office and 
forever disqualified from holding any office of profit or trust 
in the state. Judge Frazier was a refugee to Nashville from 
East Tennessee, and was appointed Judge of the Criminal 
Court of Davidson county by the Military Governor, An- 
drew Johnson. He was a conscientious citizen, a good lawyer, 
and an upright judge. A Constitutional convention which 
was held in 187Q, removed the pains and disabilities under 
which he labored from this judgment. He was subsequently 
elected by a popular vote to the seat from which he had been 
deposed in the heat of partisan passion, and served ably and 
acceptably for the full term of eight year. 

The adoption by the Legislature after this fashion of 
the 14th amendment was at once communicated to Congress, 
and had the long wished for effect of causing the admission of 
the Senators and Representatives from Tennessee. On the 
24th of July, the Governor was notified by telegraph that the 
entire delegation, on that day were admitted to their seats. 
The rejoicing at this event by the Radical majority at the state 
capitol was as enthusiastic as it was sincere. It had cost them 
much in the way of yielding their long cherished views of 
the rights and status of the negro. It had drawn them 
from the conservative lines, held by the man who had created 
and imbued them with life and power, and carried them into 
the violent arms of the Radical reconstructionists in Congress, 
who then looked with complacency on the elevation of the negro 
to political superiority and to civil and social equality over 
and with the white people of the South. It had also affi^rded 
the President an opportunity in approving the joint resolution 
which admitted the Senators and Representatives, to expose 
the fallacious pretensions of the majority in Congress, He 
said in his message returning it : " Notwithstanding its 
anomalous character I have affixed my signature thereto. My 
approval, however, is not to be construed as an acknowledg- 



RECONSTEUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 189 

meDt of the right of Congress to pass laws preliminary to the 
admission of duly qualified Representatives from any of the 
states. If the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment 
to the Constitution of the United States be one of the con- 
ditions of admitting Tennessee, and if, as is also declared by 
the preamble, said state government can only be restored to 
its former political relations to the Union by the consent of 
the law-making power of the United States, it would really 
seem to follow, that the joint resolution which at this late day 
has received the sanction of Congress, should have been passed, 
approved and placed on the statute book, before any amend- 
ment to the Constitution was submitted to the state of Ten- 
nessee, for ratification. Otherwise the inference is plainly 
deducible that while in the opinion of Congress, the people of 
a state may be too disloyal to be entitled to representation, 
they may, nevertheless, have an equally potent voice with 
other states in amending the Constitution, upon which so em- 
inently depends the stability, prosperity and very existence of 
the nation.^' 

In his first message, in April, 1865, Gov. Brownlow, had 
said that he was satisfied from long experience in the South 
it was " impossible for the negroes and the whites to live 
together as social or political equals,^' and that all legislation 
concerning the negro should look forward to a peaceful sepa- 
ration of the two races, but no sort of conviction or principle 
could resist the force of hatred to *' disloyalists and traitors'^ 
and the fascinations of office. To these he yielded every- 
thing. 

This same Legislature, — that elected in March, 1865, on 
the plan of the ''general ticket,'^— again assembled on the 2d 
of November, 1866. One of the earliest acts of this session 
provided, ''In all trials in civil or criminal cases . . . 
it shall be a good ground of challenge as to competency of 
any juror, that such juror is not a qualified voter in this 
state.'^ To be a juror under this law implied that a man 
must take the oath prescribed. Thus the non-voter could not 
enter the temple of justice as a part of the judicial machin- 
ery. The judges at this time were almost, if not entirely, 
appointees of Governor Johnson or Governor Brownlow, 



190 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

and it was thus that the large majority of Tenuesseeans were 
to be further degraded by hostile legislation. 

There was one other step to take on the subject of the 
Elective Franchise. This act bears date February 25, 1867, 
and is entitled " An Act to alter and amend the Act of May 
3d, 1866/' It admits the negro to the rights of the ballot-box, 
and makes the exclusion of '^rebels and rebel sympathizers" 
still more rigid. The oath prescribed to be taken is relieved 
of some of the former's redundancy, is neater, and is to 
be in addition to the evidence of two witnesses. It is as 
follows : 

'' I do most solemnly swear that I have never voluntarily 
borne arms against the Government of the United States for 
the purpose of, or with the intention of, aiding the late rebel- 
lion, nor have I, with any such intention, at any time, given 
aid, comfort, counsel or encouragement to said rebellion, or of 
any act of hostility to the Government of the United States. 
I further swear, that I have never sought or accepted any 
office, either civil or military, or attempted to exercise the 
functions of any office, either civil or military, under the 
authority or pretended authority of the so-called Confederate 
States of America, or of any insurrectionary state hostile or 
opposed to the authority of the United States Government, 
with intent and desire to aid said rebellion, and that I have 
never given a voluntary support to any such government or 
authority." 

Any one'taking this oath falsely is declared guilty of per- 
jury. Without the certificate of the Registration Commis- 
sioners he is to vote at any election held under the laws 
of this state. All certificates issued by County Court 
clerks under the Act of June 5, 1865, are held null and 
void, and shall not be used in any future election. All 
candidates for any official position shall take the above oath. 
Each commissioner is to report to the Governor when he has 
completed his registration. When the Governor has received 
these reports from the entire state, he shall order elections to 
fill all the vacant offices in the state, county, circuit or dis- 
trict. The judges and clerks of elections shall be selected 
and appointed by the commissioners, instead of by the sheriffs^ 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 191 

Provision is also made for holding elections in the United 
States Army, where there are Tennessee soldiers. 

The strength of this amended law lies mainly in placing 
the machinery of elections more completely under the con- 
trol of the Governor. It was still further strengthened 
by an Act passed March 8th, 1867. Section three of this 
law annuls the registration of Davidson County, made 
under the Act of May 3, 1866. Section four confers upon 
the Governor the power to set aside and annul the 
registration in any county where he is satisfied there has been 
fraud or irregularity in the registration. Section five makes 
it a misdemeanor to vote or attempt to vote on a certificate 
thus declared null and void, punishable by fine of not less 
than ten nor more than one hundred dollars. This legis- 
lation placed it in the power of the Governor to elect whom 
he chose. 

As* a voter the negro w^as safe. Fortunately for him, he 
had a great number of friends from the North, who followed 
the Federal army and hung on its bounty until the army dis- 
appeared. This was particularly the case about the large 
cities. To fix the negro in the right line was suited to their 
genius and inclination. They were not long in finding out 
the love of the race for the mysterious and marvelous, and 
their proclivity for joining secret societies. They organized 
the Union League of America, and boasting that they Avere the 
friendly liberators of the negro, they soon had four-fifths or 
more of the newly-enfranchised voters in their leagues, bound, 
as was generally understood, by an oath to vote the Republi- 
can ticket at all elections and for all purposes during their 
natural liv&s. They were taught at their meetings about the 
despicable character of the rebels and late slave-owners. In 
this way the negro soon became a fully cjualified Republican 
voter. Most of them couki conscientiously take the franchise 
oath, and those who could not — well, they took it, never- 
theless. 

The next step was the organization and equipment of an 
army* The reply of the Secretary of War on the 17th of 
July, 1866, pending the ratification of the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment, was not precisely what was expected. Nor were the 



192 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

" County Guards/' under the sheriffs displaying great strength 
and activity as a military force. On February 20, 1867, 
a bill to reorganize and equip a State Guard became a 
law. It simply authorized the Governor to organize, equip 
and call into active service a volunteer force, to be com- 
posed of one or more regiments from each Congressional 
district, to be known as the " Tennessee State Guards," and 
to be composed of loyal men ^^ who shall take and sub- 
scribe the oath prescribed in the Franchise Act/' "Any 
number of the force shall be subject to the order of the Gov- 
ernor, who shall be commander-in-chief, whenever, in his 
opinion, the safety of life, property, liberty or the faitli- 
fulexecution of law requires it to be organized, armed, 
equipped, regulated aud governed by the Rules and Articles 
of War and the revised Army Regulations of the United 
States, as far as applicable ; and shall receive pay and allow- 
ance according to grade and rank, as provided for in the 
United States Army, while in active service, to be paid out of 
any money in the state treasury not otherwise appropriated." 
Thus was carte blanche given to the Governor. The day 
after the passage of this law a joint resolution was adopted 
instructing " our.Senators and requesting our Representatives 
in Congress to use their efforts to secure the quota of arms 
from the General Government to which the state of Tennessee 
is entitled bv litw ; also to secure one of the forts in the 
vicinity of Nashville as an arsenal for the depository of the 
aforesaid arms." Before adjournment, sine die, a joint reso- 
lution was adopted requesting the Governor " to apply to the 
United States, through General Thomas, the commander of 
the department, for a sufficient force of United States soldiers 
to keep the peace and restore order and quiet in our state." 
The request was duly made on March 1st, the day of the 
adoption of the resolution. General Thomas, whose head- 
quarters were at Louisville, replied, on the 7th of March, that 
Tennessee had been declared by proclamation of the President 
to be no longer in rebellion; that United States troops could 
be used only in aid of the civil authority, and could not as- 
sume control of citizens by virtue of military orders; that 
troops would be so furnished on application ; and that the na- 



EECOXSTRUCTIOX IN TENNESSEE. 193 

tore of the disorder requiring the force should be stated, and 
the authorities to whom they were to report be particularly 
designated, when the application was made. 

All this preparation with a view to the elections to take 
place on the 1st day of August, for Governor, a new Legisla- 
ture entire, and a new delegation to Congress. The Ten- 
nessee " radicals '' had already taken sides with the extremists 
in Congress, and against the administration in their continued 
struggle. A number of the leading men refusing to go to 
the extremes of their fellow Unionists, had organized a con- 
servative Union party, composed of those who remained 
^' loyal " throughout the war, but deprecated the persecution 
of their fellow-citizens who went with the South. The radi- 
cals calling themselves Republicans, held their nominating 
Gubernatorial Convention at Nashville, on the 22d of Febru- 
ary 1867, two days after the passage of the law conferring 
the right of suffrage upon the negro. This convention nom- 
inated by acclamation Wm. G. Brownlow for re-election. 
Their resolutions among other things endorsed the course of 
the radical majority in Congress ; endorsed the administra- 
tion of Governor Brownlow, and the convention declared 
itself '^ ashamed of the unprincipled adopted son of Tennessee 
now President of the United States for his deception and 
degeneracy, and will endorse any action of Congress that will 
legitimately deprive him of continued power.'' 

In responding to the resolutions, the Governor with a 
modesty truly surprising, said that though contrary to his 
wishes he accepted the re-nomination. 

At the adjournment of the Legislature twenty-four of its 
members opposed to the extreme course of the large 
majority, united in a call for a Conservative Union State Con- 
vention, to be held at Nashville, on the 16th of April. This 
convention met and adopted resolutions declaring their adher- 
ence to the Union under the Constitution ; their desire for 
peace and civil law, and legislation giving equal and exact 
justice lo all, exclusive privileges to none, in favor of the 
immediate restoration of their disfranchised fellow-citizens to 
all the rights, privileges and immunities of full and complete 
citizenship ; recognizing in full the rights of the '^ colored 

13 



194 WHY THE solid south? 

fellow-citizen ; '^ opposing the repudiation of the national 
debt ; denouncing the establishment of a large army in a 
state in time of peace as a flagrant and dangerous encroach- 
ment upon the rights and liberties of the citizen, heavily 
oppressive to the tax-payer, and evidently designed to overawe 
voters at the ballot-box ; and cordially approving the efforts 
of the President in defending the Constitution, preserving the 
Union, and maintaining the supremacy of the laws. This 
assemblage nominated Hon. Emerson Etheridge for Governor. 

The Conservative and Radical negroes, moved by the white 
influences by which they were respectively swayed, both held 
conventions at Nashville; the one declaring for "the true 
Union Conservatives of Tennessee," the other for the Repub- 
licans, and Brownlow for Governor. The former movement 
amounted to little or nothing, the " Leagues " having already 
not alone established the party relations of the negro, but fast- 
ened them with an oath, administered with all the awful im- 
pressiveness of semi-darkness and mysterious ceremonials. In 
the beginning of the year 1867, the physical condition of 
Tennessee was good. The preceding year had passed off in 
comparative quiet. The waste and desolation of war were 
rapidly disappearing. The crops of two years; the indus- 
trious replacing of destroyed fences; the repair and re- 
newal of farm machinery; the care and multiplication of 
farm animals, had altogether changed the face of the state 
from what it was two years before ; and exhibited a power of 
recuperation only possible to a generous soil and an industri- 
ous population. 

The reasons for the Governor's congratulations on the peace- 
ful condition of public affairs in July, 1866, had continued. 
There was no occasion, therefore, for the additional franchise 
legislation by the last session of the Legislature, nor for the 
law authorizing a standing army at this time. There had not 
been a " rebel " of respectable position at home, no matter 
what his rank or want of rank in the army, nor a *' rebel 
aider, sympathizer or abettor " of standing as an honorable 
man in his community or neighborhood, who had in these two 
years either by himself or by combination with others, in any 
way undertaken to overthrow the existing state government; 



KECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 195 

or in any way obstruct its orderly administration. There were 
local acts of violence in various parts of the state, as they 
now occur in this and all other states. The allcirations of 
such a state of disorder as to justify the organization of a mili- 
tary force were without justification. The County Guard law 
in the hands of the sheriffs^ was amply sufficient to preserve 
order in all parts of the state. But for other purposes than 
the public welfare, these measures were devised and enacted 
into law. 

The majority of the people, that portion against whom all 
this persecution was leveled, had borne it, if not in silence, in 
patience. They were deprived of the ballot, by law, and 
bowed in obedience to that law, however unjust and galling it 
appeared to them. They had taken no conspicuous part in 
public affairs ; were not active in public political conventions 
to make nominations; but demeaned themselves as a class 
having no political power, with a reserve and moderation, 
which, under the circumstances, must go on record as remark- 
able. But it cannot be said that these people, most of them 
born on the soil of Tennessee, and all of them identified with 
it by the attachments of association, family and home, w^ere 
too dull to comprehend the full extent of the wrong and in- 
justice imposed upon them, or too craven to express their sense 
of them in temperate speech on proper occasions. They could 
not be blind to the fact that their good faith and law-abiding 
conduct, instead of improving their political condition, in each 
succeeding year, increased the severity of their exclusion from 
a voice in public affairs. Their property was taxed to pay 
the instruments of their oppression, and they were denied any 
voice whatever in the matter. A manly and open expression 
of their feelings at the gross wrong was neither discreditable 
to themselves nor seditious nor rebellious toward the State. 
The statutes were full of laws for the adequate punishment 
of every crime or misdemeanor involved in the charges made 
by the Governor, and made the ground for all this military 
preparation. 

The Governor began at once to organize the State Guards 
under the Act of February 20th. The canvass for Governor 
was to open some time in May, and according to a Tennessee 



196 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

custom almost immemorial, woiikl involve a joint canvass of 
the state and discussion of the issues by the opposing candi- 
dates. The chief duties of the Guards would be to appear 
in military array at various places of public speaking, under 
pretense of protecting the Republicans from ^' rebel'' assaults, 
and in the freedom of speech. On the 6th of March, Wm. 
G. Brownlow, now acting as Governor, candidate for re-elec- 
tion and Commander-in-Chief of the Tennessee State 
Guards, began work by issuing Order No. 1. This order 
called for the enlistment of troops to serve for a period of 
three years, unless sooner discharged. To effect this enlist- 
ment he commissioned certain persons as captains, and author- 
ized each of them to enlist one hundred able-bodied men, 
who, when enrolled, should elect their other officers, who were 
to be commissioned when the cajHain should certify the same. 
Twenty-five of each company were to be mounted to act as 
scouts, etc. Every officer and private was to take an oath, 
set out in full in the order, before entering the service. 
Discipline was enjoined, and trespassing upon private pro- 
perty prohibited. Under these captains' commissions twelv^e 
companies were organized and the command of the force 
turned over to General Jos. A. Cooper in a subsequent order, 
in which the Commander-in-Chief is pleased to say, that, 
** while he has no difficulty in raising companies, there will 
not be called into active service more than twelve or fourteen 
companies, all told, unless the rebellious conduct of the peo- 
ple make it necessary to increase the force." '' The length 
of time this force will be continued in the service," he said, 
" will depend altogether on the conduct of the people." 

General Cooper was one of the defeated candidates for Con- 
gress in 1865, in the Knoxville district, represented by May- 
nard. His ability was commensurate with the character and 
extent of his command, and the object to be obtained by his 
campaigns. The actual service of the troops consisted 
mainly in going from place to place in the state and show- 
ing themselves, the infantry traveling on railroads, and reach- 
ing no other points than they were thus enabled to reach ; 
while the horsemen took care of interior seats of radical 
weakness. 



EECONSTEUCTION IN TENNESSEE. I97 

Upon the whole, tlieir conduct and bearing were quite as 
good as could, under the circumstances, be expected. 

They were charged with unnecessarily shooting only a few 
citizens, and for these came in with pleas of full justification. 
They engaged in broils sometimes that did not lead to blood- 
shed. One of the notable triumphs of this heroic service was 
the riding a too free spoken citizen on a rail. It was alleged 
that they extended their jurisdiction to a case of domestic in- 
felicity, and ordered a divorce from the bonds of matrimony. 
But the crimes committed by these licensed disturbers of 
the public-repose w^ere not nearly so many or so flagrant as 
might have been expected. 

Governor Browmlow was afflicted with a nervous disease, a 
kind of palsy, which prevented easy locomotion, and from 
this cause he was prevented ^from making a canvass of the 
state with his competitor. He, therefore, issued an address 
to the people, which he procured to be published in many of 
the most widely circulated papers in Tennessee. This address 
was a review of the events of the past two years, and a de- 
fense of his administration and of all the radical legislation 
by the General Assembly. Little or no attention was paid to 
state economies and the extravagant expenditure of the public 
moneys, and the issue of additional bonds was ignored. 

In his canvass for Congress in 1865, Etheridge had ex- 
pressed in strong terms a very decided opinion of the irregu- 
larities attending the inauguration of the State Government, 
and also concerning the authority of Mr. Lincoln to set the 
slaves free by a stroke of his pen. Indeed so pronounced 
were these opinions and their expression, that a squad of 
Federal soldiers was sent from the military post at Colum- 
bus, Ky., to arrest and convey him out of the state ; thus re- 
lieving him from a continuance of his labors in the political 
harvest of that year. His nomination as the competitor of 
Governor Brownlow, was a step by "the enemy,^' which the 
Governor construed into a purpose to precipitate a conflict 
upon him, which would inevitably lead to scenes of turbu- 
lence and bloodshed. In this address he was particular to 
say he would allow the greatest freedom of speech, even to 
the severest criticism of himself and his public acts, and 



198 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

those of bis party friends ; but he concliidecl in empliasizcd 
letters, " I do not consider it the duty of the State Guards to 
stand quietly by and hear men excite the mob spirit by de- 
nouncing the Federal and State Governments, counseling re- 
sistence to the courts and setting aside their decisions by mob 
violence.'^ 

This allusion to the decisions of the courts, referred to 
a decision of the Supreme Court of the state, delivered on the 
Third day of May declaring the constitutional validity 
of the Franchise Law of May 3, 1866, (Ridley vs. Sher- 
brook, 3 Cold. 56, from Rutherford County.) Any viola- 
tion of this law or that of February 25, 1867, amend- 
ing it, by imj^roper registration or voting would accord- 
ingly be ^' resistance to the courts and setting aside their 
decisions." 

With this address and the registration machinery in his 
hands with power to correct any mistake, the Governor was 
content to remain at his home in Knoxville, where he had re- 
tired after the final adjournment of the Legislature, until his 
duties again called liim to the Capital. 

The election passed off throughout the state without not- 
able disturbances anywhere. Brownlow received 74,484 votes, 
Etheridge 22,548 ; total, 97,032 ; majority for Browlow, 
51,936. The Senate was unanimously radical, and the House 
contained but a half dozen Conservatives, with 12 of the Sen- 
ators and 28 Representatives that were members of the last 
General Assembly. The entire Congressional delegation was 
radical, as follows : R. R. Butler, Horace INlaynard, Wm. B. 
Stokes, James Mullins, Jno. Trimble, Sam'l M. Arnell, Isaac 
R. Hawkins and David A. Nunn. There was now certainly 
no cause for furtlier apprehension or distrust, nor further want 
of assurance of power on the part of the radical administra- 
tion. 

In 1867, one Alden who had drifted to Nashville in times 
of commotion, and become Commissioner of Registration, 
had himself, by the aid of Governor Brownlow's militia, 
elected to the Mayoralty, his opponent withdrawing from the 
contest under protest. 

The Mayor, of course, brought with him to the city ad- 



KECOXSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. I99 

ministration a council that could be relied on to carry out 
his wishes and plans, and the chief offices were filled by men 
of his o^vn type — strangers to the people and utterly 
indifferent to their interest or welfare. This band of 
freebooters seized the treasury with an avidity difficult to 
describe, and used it with a greed, only to be compared to 
hungry hogs at a flowing swill. No old resident was allowed 
to fill any position which involved the handling of money 
in important suras. 

Public taxes were collected, but their amount was no guide 
to the expenditures. These were on a scale of magnificent 
liberality. The Mayor and the cabal of official friends he 
had gathered around hini, soon came to be designated by the 
public as the "Alden E-ing," wdiose style of living became 
suddenly grand and imposing. When the treasury was not 
supplied with currency by the tax-payers, checks were drav/n 
in the name, often, of fictitious persons, payable to bearer, 
and sold to the street shaver of notes for any price they would 
bring. These checks were issued, in many cases, without 
consideration. As they multiplied, and the likelihood of 
payment decreased, the market quotations for them de- 
clined. Bonds were also issued, and when checks did not 
serve, bonds were substituted. 

The extent of the peculation and inexcusable waste of 
the public money during the year-and-three-quarters they 
held sway, will never be fully or accurately known. The 
present Recorder (1890) estimates the amount still unpaid 
and ascribable to the ''ring administration^' consumption and 
waste, at §700,000. 

The second election of Alden, 1868, w^as scarcely to be 
called an expression of popular will. He selected the mem- 
bers of both branches of the Council ; and his second year 
became more intolerable than the first. It was cumulative in 
its oppressiveness, and a helpless public foresaw a catastrophe 
when the day of reckoning should come. A Taxpayers' As- 
sociation was organized, and methods and measures of relief 
discussed in their meetings. Halls were secured and people 
were incited to hear speeches by able and fearless men, expo- 
sing the enormity of the situation ; and the city was soon 



200 ^VIIY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

in a glowing heat of indignation. Finally, ajiplication was 
made to the Chancery Court, at Nashville, on grounds 
deemed tenable, for relief That tribunal interposed by sus- 
pending the functions of the Mayor and placing the gene- 
ral management of affairs in the hands of a Receiver, about 
the hrst of July, 18G9. John M. Bass, a man univer- 
sally known and esteemed, and eminently competent, was 
made Receiver. 

Three months after this juridico-angelic visit, the " Alden 
ring'^ had dissolved. The cohesion of public plunder was 
sadly lacking. The members of that cabal of plunderers had 
packed their carpet-bags, shaken the plentiful dust of Nash- 
ville from their feet and departed for other fields of enter- 
prise. At the succeeding election the administration fell into 
the hands of a merchant and leading business man, K. J. 
Morris, as Mayor, and a council containing the names of men 
whose faces w^ere familiar in business walks, and whose char- 
acter for integrity was established. The task of restoring 
affairs to order and regularity, was Herculean. The un- 
authorized checks, so far as known, were litigated ; but at 
last the city was forced to pay every evidence of debt issued 
in its name by the "Alden ring," and the costs of litigation 
through the Courts of the state was money only thrown after 
that already gone. Such was the illustrated working of the 
"Franchise Machine" under favorable conditions. 

The Legislature elected in August met on the 7th of Octo- 
ber, 1867. 

The power given by the last Legislature to annul registra- 
tions, and remove and appoint Commissioners, had been 
freely used both before and after the last election by the 
Governor, wiio in this way, as in 1865, revised the popular 
vote, and decided what registrations had been irregular or 
fraudulent. But the surreptitious manner of its passage, it 
having been sandwiched into a bill about homesteads, bills of 
costs, natural born children, etc., had excited so much criti- 
cism that the present Assembly enacted a law, defining the 
powers of the Governor in all these matters, and confirming 
all acts, proclamations of annulment, removals and ,appoint- 
ments made by him since the 8th of March, 1867, whether 



KECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 201 

justified by the sections above referred to or not. Tliis re- 
lieved the Governor from any hesitation in the free use of 
this power. 

An act was also passed vesting in Commissioners of Regis- 
tration the power to hold all elections, required to be held by 
sheriffs. 

On the 31st of January, 1868, it was enacted, that there- 
after " there shall be no disqualification for holding office, or 
sitting on juries, on account of race or color; ^' thus obliterat- 
ing the last mark of the old fetters, and discharging obligations 
for partisan services. Another act was passed on the 12th of 
March, forbidding common carriers, railroads, steamboats, 
street railroads and all other common carriers to make any 
distinction in regard to color, race, or previous condition of 
any person or persons asking at their hands conveyance or 
any other service rendered by them. 

In its wisdom the Legislature gave the Governor control of 
the legal advertising patronage of the state, authorizing him 
to designate in every Congressional District, such newspapers 
as in his judgment the public interest might require, in 
which all legal advertisements should be published. If no 
paper was designated in any county, then the notice should 
be published in the nearest county where there was a paper de- 
signated, the appointment of newspapers to be confirmed by 
the Senate. 

Another safeguard throwm around the qualified voter, was 
a provision that [' no person shall be allowed to make con- 
tracts with work hands or others in their employ, that will, or 
is intended to keep them from going to the polls on election 
days " — nor shall it be a violation of contract to leave work 
and go to elections. 

An additional means of strengthening the arm of the 
Governor was an act passed February 1st, 1868, to amend the 
law authorizing County Guards to be raised by sheriffs. This 
new law provided that a sheriff, instead of being restricted to 
his own county in raising his force ^' may recruit said county 
Guards by the employment of any of the loyal citizens of this 
state ; that the County Court shall not have power to disband 
these Guards unless the order for the same is endorsed by the 



202 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

Judo-e and Attorney -General of the circuit in which the 
county may be situated ; that the wages of these men shall be 
paid by the county on the certificate of the sheriff; that if the 
County Court fail or refuse to make sufficient appropriation, 
the sheriff shall notify the Governor of sucli faihire, who 
shall send an assessor of his own appointing to levy and col- 
lect the necessary amount to pay said Guards, and to continue 
them three months longer, from the tax-payers of the county; 
and the assessor shall be allowed six dollars per day for his 
services, to be levied and collected as part of the expenses of 
the Guards; that the assessor shall have the powers of 
sheriff and assessor, have command of the Guards when 
deemed necessary, and shall levy upon real estate alone; that 
upon failure to sell property distrained by him for want of 
bidders, he may offer the property in any county in the state; 
that the proceedings of sale shall be returned to the Circuit 
Courts of the counties in which the land lies, and in which 
the sale is made, each of which shall enter judgments of con- 
demnation; and the proceedings, if regular, shall be deemed 
valid and sufficient to convey title." The law further pro- 
vides that the sheriff shall have, in addition to his other fees 
of office, the pay of captain of infantry, according to United 
States army regulations, and if he thinks proper to have as 
many as fifty men, he may have one deputy who shall be en- 
titled to the pay of a lieutenant of infantry; that if any 
sheriff fails or refuses to make arrests of offenders, or is un- 
able to provide himself with the necessary County Guards for 
the preservation of law and order, upon the certificate of such 
fact by the Judge and Attorney-General of the circuit in 
which the county is situated, or upon the affidavit of two 
known loyal citizens of the state, " it shall be the duty of the 
Governor, forthwith, by his executive order, to organize and 
establish a sufficient county police in such county to arrest 
offenders and preserve the peace," and for this purpose the 
powers are conferred on the members enumerated in a law 
establishing a Metropolitan Police District ; that the authority 
of the county police shall be co-extensive with the county; 
but they may pursue and arrest offenders in any part of the 
state ; that they shall be paid in the same manner as the 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 203 

County Guards ; that the Governor may increase or diminish 
the number of officers and members of such police at his dis- 
cretion ; that they shall serve all processes for the arrest of 
offenders ; that this force may be disbanded by the concurrent 
order of the Governor and the presiding Judge and Attorney- 
General of the circuit. The law further provides '^that the 
Governor shall have power in his discretion in cases of ap- 
prehended outbreak on public occasions, or of anticipated re- 
sistance to the laws by combination of large numbers of per- 
sons, to order the establishment of a Special County Police, to 
be commanded by such persons as he may appoint,'' and such 
force shall be paid as the County Guards. 

By this and previous laws the Governor was panoplied 
with powers to call out the State Guards ; to summon the 
County Guards, or the County Police at his discretion. The 
reasons for all these devices to uphold the authority of the 
Governor, and to enlarge his powers to the verge of auto- 
cratic, do not distinctly appear. The Governor was grow- 
ing vain on account of his triumphs, and ambitious for fur- 
ther promotion. This continued noise and pantomime 
of war was probably an expedient to divert popular atten- 
tion from other crimes against the public welfare. 

The Legislature, during this session, elected Governor 
Brownlow to the United States Senate for the term com- 
mencing March 4, 1869. It also passed resolutions re- 
questing then Representatives in Congress to vote for articles 
of impeachment against " acting President Andrew Johnson " ; 
congratulating the country on the reinstatement of E. M. 
Stanton to the'^office of Secretary of War contrary to the 
President's wishes ; demanding an additional member of Con- 
gress, on the ground of the addition of 40,000 enfranchised 
freedmen since the apportionment ; and adjourned on the 16th 
of March to November 9, 1868. 

During this interval a new source of irritation and trouble 
sprang up. On the 14th of June, Hon. Samuel M. Arnell, 
of Maury County, wrote Governor Brownlow that "the 
Ku-kliix searched the train for me last night, pistols and rope 
in hand." The Governor at once notified General Thomas 
of Arnell's complaint, saying that it was in keeping with 



204 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

what was going on in other parts of Middle and West Ten- 
nessee, and asking him to furnish a company of troops for 
Marshall and Lincoln jointly, and one each for the counties 
of Obion, Dyer and Gibson. 

General Thomas replied that Tennessee was in full exer- 
cise of the functions of a state ; that the military can only 
be used to aid and sustain the civil authorities ; that he 
had already furnished him all the troops he could si)are ; 
and declined to send the companies requested. General 
Thomas afterwards gave it as his opinion that certain laws 
passed by the last Legislature gave the sheriffs of counties 
and the Governor of the state ample powers to cope with these 
disorders. 

In this condition of affairs the Governor resorted to an 
extra session of the General Assembly. He never seemed so 
happy or so confident of spirit as when he had the representa- 
tives of the people around him at the state capitol. He Sum- 
moned them to meet on the 27th of July. In his message he 
recounted in general terms the depredations of the Ku-klux 
Klan, and called upon the members to speak and vote as they 
themselves and their constituents had spoken in private letters 
and petitions calling for the militia to protect them in their 
persons and property. He said he had been applied to by 
prominent men of both political parties to urge the ])ropriety 
of removing the political disabilities now imposed by law 
upon a large body of the people. This he cleclined to do 
saying : '^ They have a military organization in this state whose 
avowed object is to trample the laws under foot, and to force 
the party in power to enfranchise themselves and their sym- 
pathizers. I cannot yield to this request, accompanied with 
threats of violence. If members of the General Assembly 
are alarmed for their personal safety, and feel disposed to sue 
for peace upon the terms proposed by an armed mob, they 
will of course, take a different view of the subject. Any recom- 
mendation of this kind, if made at all, should be at a regular, 
and not a called meeting of your body. And whether such 
recommendation and corresponding action thereupon shall be 
deemed wise at your next adjourned meeting in November 
next, can then be safely determined by strictly observing the 



EECOXSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 205 

conduct of these unreconstructed Ku-klux rebels and their 
sympathizing supporters, between this time and that.'' , 

As soon as the Legislature was ready for business, many 
petitions for the repeal of the franchise law were presented — one 
of them by Judge Shackleford, of the Supreme Court, signed 
by nearly 4,000 citizens. On the 1st of August, B. F. Cheat- 
ham, !N^. B. Forest, Wm. B. Bate, Jno. C. Brown, Jos. B. 
Palmer, Thomas B. Smith, Bushrod R. Johnson, Gideon J. 
Pillow, Wm. A. Quarles, S. R. Anderson, G. G. Dibrell, 
George Maney and Geo. W. Gordon, all military officers of 
high rank in the late Confederacy, met at the capitol and 
framed a memorial expressing deep solicitude for the peace 
and quiet of the state ; protesting against the charge of hostility 
to the state government or a desire for its overthrow by revo- 
lutionary or lawless means ; or that those who had been 
associated with them in the past days contemplate any such 
rashness or folly ; nor did they believe there is in Tennessee 
any organization, public or secret, wdiich has such a purpose ; 
and if there be, they had neither sympathy nor affiliation 
therewith. They believ^ed the peace of the state did not 
require a military organization ; that such a measure might 
bring about and promote collisions, rather than conserve the 
harmony and good order of society ; pledged themselves to 
maintain the order and peace of the state with wdiatever 
influence they possessed, to uphold and support the laws and 
aid the constituted authorities in their execution, trusting that 
a reciprocation of these sentiments will produce the enactment 
of such laws as will remove all irritating causes disturbing 
society. '^For," they continued, "when it is remembered 
that the large mass of white men in Tennessee are denied the 
right to vote or to hold office, it is not w^onderful or unnatural 
there should exist more or less dissatisfaction among them. 
And we beg leave respectfully to submit to your consideration 
that prompt and efficient action on the part of the proper 
authorities, for the removal of the political disabilities resting 
upon so many of our people, would heal all the wounds of our 
state, and make us once more a prosperous, contented and 
united people." 

While these petitions were still before the Assembly, Gov- 



206 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ernor Brownlow sent in a special message, accompanied by a 
letter and draft of an " ordinance/' from Judge John M. Lea, 
wliich he was induced, by his high regard for the author and 
his confidence in his patriotism and integrity, to submit to 
their deliberate consideration. Tiie letter called upon the 
Governor and the Legislature to complete the reconstruction 
in Tennessee on the plan set forth in the proposed ordinance. 
This ordinance recited the general disfranchisement, and dis- 
position of the people of the state to acquiesce in the results 
which have been brought about by the late civil war, and 
recommended to the people, in the name of the General As- 
sembly, an amendment to the State Constitution, conferring 
the right of suffrage upon ^* every free man, white or colored, 
of the age of twenty-one years, being a citizen of the United 
States, and a citizen of the county wherein he may offer his 
vote six months next preceding the day of election." The 
ordinance provided that this amendment should be submitted 
to a vote of the people at the next state election, and that 
every voter in favor of its adoption, should write or print on 
his ticket the word ** convention,'^ and that he elects and ap- 
points as delegates to said convention the members of the 
present General Assembly." If a majority of the people 
vote ''convention," it implied they favored this amendment, 
and the General .Assembly, thus constituted a constitutional 
convention for the purpose, was to incorporate it into the or- 
ganic law of the state without further action on the part of 
the people. A debate followed which developed decided op- 
position to entertaining the subject at this session, and the 
whole matter was laid on the table. 

While the Legislature was in session, and before final action 
had been taken on the matters under consideration, a conven- 
tion of extreme radicals was held at Nashville, which {)assed 
a series of resolutions, endorsing the course of Governor 
Brownlow, especially in calling the present extra session for 
the purpose of '' protecting defenseless loyal men from the 
wanton violence of Ku-klux banditti and others, aided and 
encouraged by wealthy rebels ; " opposing the repeal of the 
franchise law ; calling upon the Legislature to pass an effi- 
cient military bill that will enable the Governor to meet any 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 207 

emergency, and declaring that wherever the military was re- 
quired its costs should, if found practicable, be borne by the 
tax-payers of the county. 

Pending the consideration of the military bill, petitions 
against its passage were presented from all quarters. The 
Senate and House disagreed on the measure proposed by the 
Military Committee, the result being the reenactment of the 
law of 1867, with amendments. The Governor was authorized 
to organize, equip and call into active service a volunteer 
force to be composed of loyal men, who should take and sub- 
scribe an oath to support the Constitution of the United 
States and of this state, to be known as the " Tennessee State 
Guards.'^ In addition to the provisions of former laws, this 
authorized the Governor to declare martial law in any county 
whenever the Judge and Attorney General of the district 
wherein the county lay, and the Senator and Kepresentatives 
and ten Union men of good moral character shall represent 
that "the laws cannot be enforced, and the good citizens of 
that county or counties cannot be protected in their just 
rights, on account of rebellion or insurrection, or the opposi- 
tion of the people to the enforcement of law and order ;'^ he 
was authorized to quarter troops on such counties ; and was 
made his duty to assess and collect a sufficient amount for the 
full payment of State Guards so employed out of such county 
or counties, in the manner provided in the Act of February 
1st, 1868. It also required the Governor to furnish a num- 
ber of troops necessary for the purpose, upon application and 
sworn statement of ten or more unconditional Union men of 
good moral character, or three Justices of the Peace in any 
county, that the civil laws cannot be enforced without the aid 
of the military authorities. 

As a measure of further precaution, a committee of three 
was authorized by joint resolution to proceed to Washington 
and lay before the President the condition of affairs, and to 
"urge him to take steps to give protection to the law-abiding 
citizens of the state.'^ 

This committee set out at once, and presented an address to 
the President giving a statement of the operations of the Ku- 
Klux Klan, which, it claimed, on the alleged authority of 



208 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

General Forrest, nimibered forty thousand members in Ten- 
nessee alone, and urged upon him to send a sufficient Federal 
force to the state " to aid the civil authorities, to act with them 
in suppressing these wrongs and bringing the guilty parties 
to trial, giving assurance that all the laws will be enforced, 
crime punished, and protection extended to such officers and 
citizens as may attempt to execute laws or prosecute further 
violation/^ The committee returned with assurances from 
General Schofield, Secretary of War, that such dispositions 
would be made as to meet the emergency, and that the power 
of the United States would be employed ''wherever and so 
far as it may be necessary to protect the Civil Government 
of Tennessee against lawless violence and to enable the Gov- 
ernment to execute the laws of that state and protect its law- 
abiding citizens." 

Before adjournment a law to preserve the public peace was 
framed and passed. It denounces a fine of nol less than $500, 
imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than five years, and 
renders infamous any person who shall unite with, associate with, 
promote or encourage any secret organization of persons who 
shall prowl through the country or towns of this state, by day or 
night, disguised or otherwise, for the purpose of disturbing the 
peace, or alarming the peaceable citizens of any portion of the 
state; the same upon a person summoned as a witness, who fails 
or refuses to obey the summons, or shall appearand refuse to 
testify; the same upon any prosecuting attorney who has been 
informed of a violation of this Act, and fails or refuses to prose- 
cute the person informed on, and in addition his name shall be 
stricken from the roll of attorneys ; the same upon any officer, 
clerk, sheriff or constable who fails or refuses to perform any of 
the duties imposed by this Act; the same upon any officer or 
other person who shall inform any other person that he or she is 
to be summoned as a witness, with the intent of de- 
feating any of the provisions of this or any other criminal 
law of this state ; the same upon any one who shall write, 
publish, advise, entreat privately or publicly any individual 
or class of persons to resist any of the laws of the state ; the 
same upon any person who shall make threats with the in- 
tention of intimidating or preventing any elector or person 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 209 

authorized to exercise the elective franchise ; the same upon 
any one who shall attempt to break up any election in this 
state ; the same upon any one who shall feed, lodge or enter- 
tain or conceal in the woods or elsewhere, any one known to 
such person to be charged with any offence under this Act. 
The law further provides, that no prosecutor shall be required 
on indictments, and no indictment held insufficient for want 
of form under this Act; that where any sheriff or other offi- 
cer shall return process issued under this Act, unexecuted, with 
an affidavit stating the reason for the non-execution, an alias 
shall issue and the officer shall give notice to the inhabitants 
of the county, of such alias, by posting a notice at the court- 
house door, and if the inhabitants shall permit the defendant 
to be or live in the county without arrest, they shall be sub- 
ject to an assessment of not less than $500 nor more than 
$5,000 ; that all the inhabitants of this state shall be author- 
ized to arrest offenders under this Act, without process; that 
this Act shall act as a lien upon all the property of the de- 
fendant for fines, costs or penalties imposed, dating from the 
day or night of the commission of the offence ; that every 
public officer, in addition to the oath prescribed by the Con- 
stitution, shall swear that he has never been a member of the 
organization known as the Ku-klux Klau, or other disguised 
body of men contrary to law, and that it shall be unlawful 
for any person to publish any proffered or pretended order of 
such secret or unlawful clans. The measure of damages is 
fixed as follows : For entering the house or place of residence 
of any officer in the night in a hostile manner, or against his 
will, |l 0,000, and it shall be lawful for the assailed to kill 
the assailant; for killing any peaceable individual in the 
night, $20,000 ; all other injuries to be assessed in proportion. 
On the 16th of September, Governor Brownlow issued a 
proclamation against the Ku-klux Klan, recounting the 
action which had been taken by the Legislature, and calling 
upon the good, loyal and patriotic people, white and colored, 
in every county in the state, without delay, to raise companies 
of loyal and able-bodied men and report to him at Nashville, 
declaring his purpose to use the force so collected in putting 
down armed marauders, and in such manner as the exigency 
14 



210 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

demanded, whatever might be the consequences. This Ku-khix 
Klan, it is proper to observe, was a mysterious organization 
that wore grotesque disguises ; that paraded at night ; and 
that seemed to liave neither starting-point nor destination. 
It appeared unexpectedly and disappeared suddenly. It 
never entered in its paraphernalia the larger cities or centre, 
of population. Its movements were entirely on horsebacks 
the horses often with muffled feet, and with trappings suffi- 
cient to conceal their identity on a casual view. Their 
numbers were indefinite. Sometimes many would appear 
together, at others, few. No one was found to confcvss 
that he knew who they were, whence they came, or whither 
they went. 

Sixteen years after this, in 1884, a history of the Ku- 
klux Klan was published in Nashville, in which the fact is 
disclosed that it originated with a coterie of young men in 
Pulaski, Giles County, this state, in May, 1866, and was 
designed by them wholly and purely for amusement ; that 
the amusing features of the initiation were so decided, the 
membership increased so rapidly, that by 1868 it had spread 
from Virginia to Texas, and its original design had been 
greatly perverted ; that its chief officer had lost control of its 
members or their actions; that it never was in any sense a 
military organization, as alleged by Governor Brownlow ; that 
it claimed that many of the crimes and outrages committed 
in its name, were those of parties who used their disguises to 
gratify personal spites, and so avenge private griefs, and that 
it disbanded in March, 1869. 

The excitement usually incident to a Presidential election 
did not tend to allay the feeling engendered by the constant 
and long-continued course of political ostracism towards a 
majority of the people of Tennessee, who were at the same 
time supporting, by their toil, the tax exactions of the oppres- 
sor. The election passed off with as little disorder as the 
circumstances reasonably permitted. The total vote polled 
was 83.068— Grant, 56,757 ; Seymour, 26,311— a falling off 
of 13,964 from the popular vote in the Gubernatorial election 
in 1867. 

The Legislature met again in adjourned session, on the 9th 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 211 

of November, 1868. The Goveroor in his message in refer- 
ence to the State Guards, said, that soon after the return 
of the Legislative committee from Washington, General 
Thomas had inquired in \Yliat localities troops were needed; 
that he had furnished the names of twenty-two counties, and 
Federal troops in sufficient number had been sent to them. 
Hence the State Guards had not been called into active 
service. 

The most important measure considered and passed, was an 
Act on the 23rd of February, 1869, requiring commissioners 
of registration in the various counties throughout the state, 
on the fourth Thursday in May, 1869, to open and hold 
elections in their respective counties for Judges of the vari- 
ous courts of the state, and for Attorneys-General in all the 
Circuit and Criminal Districts. This was the first step tow- 
ards restoring the Judiciary to its former status. 

The Governor's proclamation of September the 16th, call- 
ing on the able-bodied, loyal men to join military companies, 
had not met ready response. He followed it with another 
on the 20th of January, 1869, again calling ^' upon all good 
and loyal citizens to enter the ranks of the State Guards, be 
mustered into service, and aid in supressing lawlessness." 
This had a better effect. On the 25th of January, Brigadier 
General Joseph A. Cooper issued "General Order No. 1," 
dated at Nashville, assuming command of all the Tennessee 
State forces in the field. On the 20th of February the Gov- 
ernor issued his last proclamation, in which he stated that 
there were then 1,600 State Guards in Nashville; proclaimed 
martial law (the effect of which he declared was to set aside 
civil law, and turn the offenders over to the militarv, who 
would try them, and upon their conviction, dispose of them 
in a summary manner) in, and over the counties of Overton, 
Jackson, Maury, Giles, Marshall, Lawrence, Gibson, Madi- 
son and Haywood ; and directed General Cooper "to distrib- 
ute these troops at once, and continue them in service until 
we have unmistakable evidence of the purpose of all parties 
to keep the peace." 

Governor Brownlow, having been elected to the United 
States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1869, on 



212 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the 25th of February, retired from the executive office, and 
the Speaker of the Senate, D. AV. C. Senter, of Grainger 
County, was duly inaugurated. The Legislature itself ad- 
journed sine die on the 11th of March. 

But, for reckless extravagance, for indifference to the ob- 
ject and extent of expenditures, the Thirty-fourth General 
Assembly elected by general ticket, February 22, 1865, and 
holding until October, 1867, stands without a peer. As- 
suming the half currently reported and generally believed to 
be true, the majority of its members were looked upon as 
knowing nothing and caring less for the financial condition or 
necessities of the state, and many were regarded as directly 
ap})roachable corruptly for their support of measures. The 
state's aid, in bonds, to railroads and turnpikes, was upon a 
scale of liberality unheard of All that seemed to be re- 
quired was the ])resentation of a measure or bill, and it would 
go through without regard to its purpose or merit. The lob- 
bies of the Capitol swarmed with persons who were employed 
to secure legislation, by presenting pecuniary arguments to 
members. 

Before the close of the last of the four sessions of this 
Assembly, a moral stench seemed to rise from the state 
Capitol. Many of the well disposed ])crsons elected on the 
general ticket, who were present in April, 1865, failed to an- 
swer to roll-call on the 11th of March, 1867. Of this class 
there were twelve Senators and thirty-two Representatives, 
whose places were filled by less worthy men. The first 
elected Comptroller (Hackett) seemed to be entirely incompe- 
tent and inefficient. Until about the beginning of 1866, all 
business of the state was transacted with a looseness and a 
general lack of attention to systematic methods, that could 
not fail of disastrous results. AVhen a new Comptroller of 
sense and integrity was found, he was hampered by the finan- 
cial legislation, which, against his remonstrances, continued 
to overwhelm the treasury with burdensome appropriations 
and increasing bonded obligations until December 7, 1867, 
when it culminated in numbers of grants to railroads, known 
as the '^ Omnibus Bill," They were equallv unfortunate in 
the selection of a treasurer (Stanford). His depositary of 



EECONSTEUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 213 

part of the school fund, a bank in Memphis, controlled by a 
man named Rutter, inflicted a loss of above a hundred 
thousand dollars. The penitentiary became a prey for private 
profit at the expense of the state. The warden, a carpet- 
bagger, (J. S. Hull) was suspended by legislative resolution, 
for corruption in office, and a month later w^as allowed to re- 
sign. An Act was passed on the 12th of May, 1866, to 
lease the state prison and the labor of the convicts. The les- 
sees threw up the contract and the institution continued a 
leech upon the treasury. Many railroads, aided by the state, 
defaulted in payment of interest, and were placed in the 
hands of receivers, who instead of running them so as to pay 
current expenses and fixed charges, were as far as previous 
managements from relieving past obligations. Every interest 
of the state w^as suffering either through incompetent or dis- 
honest agencies. The Thirty-fourth General Assembly man- 
ifested supreme indifference to everything touching the state 
finances. The increase of their own per diem and mileage forty 
percent, above their constitutional allowance, was made with- 
out hesitation. Their expenses during their service, with 
printing bills added, amounted to $421,496.88. Its successor, 
the Thirty-fifth General Assembly for legislative expenses, 
including bills for printing, is charged with ?338,508.37 from 
the treasury, — the two " Brownlow Legislatures " aggregating 
in " Legislative expenditures '' $760,005.25. During the 
first period, from April, 1865, to October, 1867, the Governor 
had a staff about him, which, together with the Adjutant 
General's office, cost the state »$31,878.62. 

The total expense of the " Tennessee State Guards " — a 
military force wantonly authorized to be enlisted, and need- 
lessly called into active service — was the sum of §668,650.33. 
As an evidence that these '^ troops of horse and foot '' were 
unnecessary at the first call in 1867, it need only be stated 
that §175,284.83 Avere paid out for state prosecutions that 
year ; and for the next year, $160,681.37. These facts expose 
the falsity of the allegations of turbulence and disorder in 
defiance of the courts, which served as a pretext for outrages, 
designed for entirely different ends than for those claimed. 

But why detail these items of extravagance ? It can be as 



214 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

well understood by saying that, during this four and a half 
years $9,024,183.70 passed from the people into the treasury, 
and only $28,649.42 remained as cash balance September 
30, 1869 ; and against this small sum were $297,815.71 war- 
rants on the treasury outstanding and unpaid,— a deficit of 
$269,166.29,— or a total expenditure of $9,293,349.99 ; thus 
showing the amount expended under this reign to be more 
than double that expended in the same length of time pre- 
ceding or subsequent. 

Besides this expenditure of current revenues from taxation, 
durino: the carnival of extravag-ance, an additional bonded 
debt was created in aid of railroads and turnpikes, and 
funded interest, mostly on their account, of $16,565,046.60. 
It is part of the financial history of Tennessee that many of 
these 6 per cent, bonds were sold for ruinous prices varying 
from seventeen to forty cents on the dollar, and for green- 
backs, then greatly below par. 

As may well be conceived, the Legislature which com- 
menced its session in October 1869 received a legacy of debt 
which worried the people and its successors for thirteen years 
before it was settled on a permanent basis. 

Once rid of Brownlow's presence, and that Legislature not 
to assemble again, unless on special call of the Governor, the 
prospect was more cheerful. 

A Governor and Legislature to be elected in August, 
began early to occupy public attention. The Republican 
nominatino* convention was called for the 20th of Mav. The 
leading aspirants for the nomination, were Gov. Senter, the 
incumbent, and Col. Wm. B. Stokes, the gentleman who 
acted as substitute from Brownlow in the canvass with Eth- 
ridge in 1867. When the convention assembled in the state 
capitol, it was a heterogeneous mass ; a considerable number of 
negroes, who were quick to assert their political rights, and a 
discordant contingent of whites whose cross purposes and 
diverse aims were unconcealed. The contest was doubtful. 
The friends of each of the aspirants tried to control the 
organization. On this contest, the convention was irreconcil- 
able, and split into two parts. Each fraction of the convention 
met in separate places, and each nominated its favorite. Both 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TENNESSEE. 215 

Seuter and Stokes were thus made Republican candidates for 
Governor. No one was put forward by any other party. The 
difference between them consisted of an issue on the franchise 
question. Gov\ Senter declared that ^^ the time has come and 
is now, when the limitations and disabilities which have found 
their way into our statute books, as the result of the war 
should be abolished and removed, and the privilege of the 
elective franchise restored, and extended so as to embrace the 
mass of the adult population of the state.'^ 

Col. Stokes thus defined his position : ^' When the killing 
of Union men ceases, the hellish organization of Ku-Klux 
is disbanded, and the laws are observed, then I am willing to 
entertain a proposition to amend the state constitution so far 
as to allow the disfranchised to come in gradually, by pro- 
viding that the Legislature may, by a two-thirds vote remove 
the disabilities of those who petition and come well recom- 
mended by their loyal neighbors.'^ This was the principal 
issue from Carter to Shelby. To the people the candidates 
appeared as '^ Hyperion to Satyr.'^ 

On the 5th of August the ballots showed a total vote cast 
of 175,369 ; of which Gov. Senter received 120,333 ; Col. 
Stokes 55,036— majority 65, 297. 

The surprising number of votes polled is accounted for 
largely by a decision of the Supreme Court in May, State vs. 
Staten, 6th Cold: 235, from Gibson County declaring uncon- 
stitutional the Acts of the Legislature authorizing the execu- 
tive to set aside and annul registration of voters in which he 
miofht discover frauds and irreo^ularities. This restored the 
franchise to a very large number of voters whose certificates 
had been annulled by Governor Brownlow. 

The Legislature elected at the same time, containing some 
of the leading minds of the state, met on the 4th of October. 
A constitutional convention was called by popular vote, regu- 
larly authorized by law, and the delegates elected on the 18th 
of December, assembled on the 10th of January, 1870. 
The state was now truly " reconstructed.'' There was no 
further disorder : The troops were of no further service ; and 
the state entered upon a career of peace and prosperity which 
has since been uninterrupted. 

Ira p. Jones. 



I 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 

T is fitting tlie story should begin ^vhere the original con- 
struction of the Old Dominion was first interfered with. 
Its first part embraces : 

I. 

DISMEMBERMENT. THE THREE VIRGINIAS. 

RICHMOND. WHEELING. ALEXANDRIA. 

Virginia suffered more than any other state during the war, 
because larger armies subsisted and contended upon her soil 
for longer })eriods, than upon the soil of any other state ; 
and she suffered more from Reconstruction, because in its 
course her ancient domain was rent asunder, and slie lost one- 
third of her territory. But the story of Virginia, at Rich- 
mond, being inside the Confederate liaes, is outside the scope 
of this article, and we begin therefore with 

VIRGINIA AT WHEELING. 

Prior to 1861, various causes had conspired to develope, in 
certain counties of north-western Virginia, a public sentiment 
touching the issues between North and South, less strongly 
southern than the average sentiment of the State; and upon 
the passage of the ordinance of Secession by the Richmond 
convention, on the 17th of April of that year, many dele- 
gates from these counties returned home, and immediately 
began a vigorous campaign against Secession. Two conven- 
tions met in quick succession at Wheeling, the first of which, 
representing 26 counties, on May 13th, before the date fixed 

216^ 



RECONSTKUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 217 

for the popular vote upon the ordinance, denounced the seces- 
sion proceedings of the Richmond convention as " manifest 
usurpations of power/^ " null and void/^ and called a second 
convention for June 11th. 

Meanwhile the Federal government had promised its aid, 
General McClellan had crossed the Ohio with Union troops, 
and the series of his brilliant successes, which soon after drove 
the Confederate forces out of the region, had begun. 

The convention of June 11th, representing at first 31 
counties, afterwards received delegations from 8 others. It 
exacted from its members an oath to support the constitution 
and laws of the United States (omitting all mention of those 
of Virginia) ^' anything in the ordinance of the Richmond 
convention . to the contrary notwithstanding.^' It annulled 
all the acts and proceedings of the Richmond government, 
and vacated the offices of all officers who adhered to it. On 
June 20th, in total disregard of the constitution of the state, 
this convention elected Francis H. Pierpoint, Governor, and 
filled other offices some of them not even authorized bv that 
constitution. It declared the members of the Assembly 
chosen at the regular spring elections, and of course then 
destined for Richmond, and those elected to fill the places of 
such as would not take the required oath to support the 
government it had set up, to be the true and lawful Legisla- 
ture of the state, and called it together at Wheeling on the 
first day of July. Upon the recommendation of the first 
Wheeling convention, the congressmen to which the three 
north-western districts were entitled had been elected in May, 
and on July 9th, this legislature elected two United States 
senators. 

Both houses of Congress admitted these members, as from 
the "State of Virginia," and both the convention and the 
governor were distinct and emphatic in declaring that the 
entire movement was one for the restoration of the entire 
commonwealth to her place in the Union — that the true and 
lawful government of Virginia was at Wheeling and not at 
Richmond — albeit the Wheeling government then represented 
but 39 out of the 140 counties, and 3 cities, of Virginia en- 
titled to representation, and these 39 counties contained but 



218 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

282,000 out of the 1,600,000 inhabitants of the state.* All 
this in a free republic, based upon "the consent of the gov- 
erned," and embodying "the rule of the majority" — there 
being at the time, in existence and in full operation, another 
government of Virginia, having its seat at the ancient capital 
of the commonwealth and supported by the overwhelming 
majority of her citizens. 

It may have been due in part to such reflections as these, 
that there was a sudden shifting of the scenes. After a brief 
recess, this same convention, on the 20th of August, passed 
an ordinance providing for the formation of a new state to be 
called "Kanawha," out of the territory of Virginia, and 
embracing the very counties then represented in the Wiieel- 
ing convention and legislature, and certain other counties, 
Berkeley and Jefferson among them, if they should vote to 
annex themselves to the new state. 

Against this proposed action, Attorney-General Bates, the 
law officer of President Lincoln's cabinet, entered a vigorous 
protest embodied in a letter to a member of the Wheeling 
convention, saying, among other things: "The formation of 
a new state out of Western Virginia is an original, indepen- 
dent act of revolution. . . . Any attempt to carry it out 
involves a plain breach of both the constitutions of Virginia 
and of the nation. And hence it is plain that you cannot 
take such course without weakening, if not destroying, your 
claims upon the sympathy and support of the general gov- 
ernment, and without disconcerting the plan already adopted 
both by Virginia and the general government, for the re- 
organization of the revolted states and the restoration of the 
integrity of the Union. . . . Yonr new governor form- 
ally demanded of the President the fulfillment of the consti- 
tutional guarantee in favor of Virginia — Virginia as known 
to our fathers and to us. The President admitted the obliga- 
tion, and promised his best efforts to fulfill it. And the Senate 
admitted your senators, not as representing a new and name- 
less state, now for the first time heard of in history, but as 
representing the good old commonwealth." 

*A11 statements as to population based upon the Census of 1860. 



KECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 219 

Notwithstanding this'protest, the convention not only passed 
the ordinance in August^ but the people in October ratified 
this action at the polls, and elected a convention to frame a 
constitution for the new state. This convention met in Xo- 
vember and adjourned in February, putting its constitution to 
popular vote in April, 1862. At the latter date, 48 counties 
in all adhered to the new movement, their wdiite population 
aggregating some 335,000, and yet there were not 20,000 
votes cast at either election, that which created the new state 
in October, ^61, or that which ratified its constitution in April, 
^62. Thousands of voters were presumably disfranchised by 
the oaths required, other thousands were in both armies, and 
others still refugees within the Confederate lines. Of course 
the overwhelming majority of the votes cast was in favor of 
both propositions, and the legislature, meeting in extra session 
on the 6th of May, on the 13th gave its consent, as the legis- 
lature of ^' Virginia,'^ to the formation of the new state, 
making provisions also as the constitution had done, for the 
subsequent admission of Berkeley, Jefferson and other counties. 

The bill for the admission of West Virginia passed the 
Senate of the United States in July, 1862, but there being 
some delay in the House of Representatives, the Wheeling 
Legislature, still as the Legislature of ^^ Virginia,'^ not only 
memorialized the House to pass the bill dismembering the 
Commonwealth and alienating part of her territory, but also 
requested the resignation of the Hon. John S. Carlisle, who, 
as senator fiom Virginia, had resisted the dismemberment of 
his native state.* On the 31st of December, 1862, the Presi- 
dent signed the bill previously passed by both houses, requi- 
ring, however, an amendment to the constitution of the 
state, which was made; and on the 20th of April, 1863, he 
issued his proclamation that, at the expiration of sixty days, 
West Virginia would be one of the sovereign and co-equal 
states of the American Union. Although the constitution 
of the state required the election of state officers upon the 
fourth Thursday in October, yet, upon the fourth Thursday 
in May, the Union (or Republican) state ticket previously 

* Virginia Acts of Assembly, 1861-1865, "Wheeling. 



220 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

nominated was elected without opposition, and, upon the 20th 
day of June, 1863, the very day her statehood and position 
in the Union became complete, the government of West Vir- 
ginia was formally inaugurated. 

One of the most remarkable features of this strange story 
is the complacency with which conventions, legislatures and 
governors, purporting to represent the commonwealth of 
Viro-inia. proposed and consented to repeated partitions and 
transfers of her territory — one sovereignty acting for every 
party and interest concerned in the transaction — in turn pro- 
moter of the scheme, donor of the territory, and recij)ient 
also. Wheeling Virginia, being but the alter ego of West Vir- 
ginia. And there seems to have been no limit, either to the 
desire to have or the willingness to give. The AVheeling 
convention suggested the creation of a new state, to embrace 
thirty-nine counties of Virginia, but provided for the an- 
nexation of additional counties; the West Virginia con- 
stitution framed by a Virginia convention, organized a state 
of forty-four counties, but made like provision for further 
expansion ; the act of Congress, urgently clamored for by 
Wheeling Virginia, admitted West Virginia with forty-eight 
counties, and a subsequent act ratified the annexation of two 
others — in each case a Virginia convention proposing, a Vir- 
ginia legislature ratifying, and a Virginia governor certifying 
the result of the popular vote and the transfer of Virginia's 
territory to another state. The character of the *' popular 
vote" which, in those days, and in restored Virginia, and by 
the government of the United States, was considered ade- 
quate to set the great seal of ratification by the people, is 
well illustrated in a statement made by Mr. Bingham, of 
Ohio, upon the floor of the House of Representatives, in 
1862, that Mr. Segar, of Virginia, then occupying a seat in 
that body as the representative of the Accomack District, 
claimed it upon the basis of twenty-five votes cast in the en- 
tire district, all of which he, Mr. Segar, had received, the 
district having cast nearly two thousand (2000) votes in the 
last preceding election. 

The extent of the spoliation of Virginia contemplated and 
actually proposed by the Wheeling government, while still 



EECOXSTRUCTION IN VIRGINLi. 221 

purporting to represent the Old Commonwealth, is almost in- 
credible. Not only were fifty counties actually transferred to 
and appropriated by West Virginia, but on the 13th of Feb- 
ruary, 1862, the Wheeling legislature passed "An act pro- 
viding for taking the sense of the voters of Accomack and 
Northampton, whether or not they will be annexed to Mary- 
land,'' and on the 4th of February, 1863, "An act giving 
consent to the admission of certain counties into the new state 
of West Virginia, upon certain conditions,'^ the conditions 
being a popular vote " For Annexation/' etc., and the coun- 
ties being Tazewell, Bland, Giles, Craig, Buchanan, Wise, 
Kussell, Scott, Lee, Alleghany, Bath, Highland, Frederick, 
(Jefferson), Clarke, Loudoun, Fairfax, Alexandria, Prince 
William, Shenandoah, Warren, Page and Rockingham. 



VIRGINIA AT ALEXANDRIA. 

After " Reorganized Virginia " had, by a second reorganir 
zation, transformed herself into West Virginia, it might be 
supposed the by-play of "The Two Virginias" was at an 
end. By no means. Francis H. Pierpoint, had been elected 
or appointed by the Wheeling convention in June, '61, 
" Governor of Virginia " to hold for six months or until his 
successor should be elected and qualified. Although substanti- 
ally the entire territory represented in and supporting his ad- 
ministration had become another state and elected another 
governor, yet, as his government had purported to stand for 
the entire commonwealth and been so recoo:nized and treated 
by the government at Washington, why might he continue, if 
not to act, at least to pose, as the governor of all Virginia, 
not transferred to West Virginia? He determined not only 
to do this, but also to hold title to his office by popular election. 
Upon the fourth Thursday in May, 1863, the same day the 
loyal voters within the forty-eight transferred counties returned 
Arthur L. Boreman, governor of West Virginia, the hand- 
ful who cared to take part in the elections held here and there 
in the little fringe of territory, outside these counties, which 
had been irregularly and occasionally represented in restored 
Virginia at Wheeling, returned Francis H. Pierpoint, gov- 



222 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ernor of Virginia, for the term of three years, beginning 
January 1st, 1864. They also elected members of tlie Gen- 
eral Assembly, and the new government of the new " Restored 
Virginia ^^ transferred itself to Alexandria. On the first 
Monday in December, the governor solemnly called his Gen- 
eral Assembly to the new capital. 

The constitution and proceedings of that body, indeed of 
the entire administration of Governor Pierpoint at Alexan- 
dria, present a travesty upon the great fundamental principle, 
^' government of the people, by the people and for the j)eo- 
ple," so ludicrous and pitiful as to be almost beyond belief, 
and we \Yould hesitate to mention even the outline facts, were 
not the veritable record extant in the official Journal of the 
House of Delegates at Alexandria, published in a volume of 
House Journals, 1861 to 1865. When the House met and 
the roll was called seven delegates responded, representing 
five counties, Norfolk, Loudoun, Alexandria, Northampton 
and Prince William. The body adjourned until the next 
day, and on that day again adjourned, finally organizing on 
December 9th, with eight members in this the popular branch. 
Of course in such a body there was not much swing between 
a committee of one and a committee of the whole, and it is 
amusing to note how the same names occur and recur 
in varying order upon the different working committees. 
How many members then composed the Senate of restored 
Virginia we have not been able to learn. It is said the ag- 
gregate number of the Assembly never exceeded 16, but 
this baker's dozen appointed committees and went gravely to 
work as the legislature of a sovereign state of nearly a million 
and a quarter of inhabitants. They called a constitutional 
convention which met on the 13th of February, 1864, num- 
bering exactly sixteen members, and this representative body 
of Virginia statesmen amended the constitution of the com- 
monwealth, by inserting a provision abolishing slavery and 
making other changes suggested by the partition of the state. 

This Alexandria government received but scant considera- 
tion from any quarter. In the summer of 1864, General 
Butler commanding at Norfolk, finding the officers of this 
government assuming to exercise their functions within his 



RECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 223 

lines, and learning that they claiired to have been legally 
elected, by virtue of having received the majority of a total 
of one hundred and nine votes cast in the city, ordered an- 
other, election upon the issue whether the people of Norfolk 
preferred to be under this pitiful and powerless concern, or 
the strong and steady rule of the military arm. Three hun- 
dred and forty-six votes were cast in this second election ; 
330 for military government, and but 16 for poor Pierpoint 
and his '^ Restored Virginia.'' With cruel irony, Butler 
issued a second order claiming that only 20 votes were cast 
in the first election, exclusiv^e of the votes of the 45 candi- 
dates upon the ticket of each of the two political parties, 
^' assuming always,'' said he, " that the men running for 
office in a city, vote for each other ; " and he closed with a 
gentle reminder that these pretended civil officers must " no 
longer attempt to exercise such functions, and upon any pre- 
tence or attempt so to do, the military commandant at Nor- 
folk will see to it that the persons so acting are stayed and 
quieted." 

The contemned and derided Governor of " Restored Vir- 
ginia " appealed to the President who promised to interfere, 
but the military authorities held the field. Finding at last 
that the protection of his Alexandria bantling from insult 
was a little too much for even his compliant party friends at 
Washington to undertake, upon the re-assembling of his 
faithful legislatuie in December, '64, Governor Pierpoint re- 
lieved his wounded feel in o-s in a manifesto to them relatinof all 
his woes. As above suggested, with regard to the very 
origin of the Alexandria goverment and the ordinary conduct 
of its proceedings, it is difficult to realize that we are review- 
ing the earnest and practical work of men of intelligence and 
purpose, the entire affair savoring rather of the mock grav- 
ity of intentional burlesque. But the message in question is 
such a remarkable expression even of this very remarkable 
administration, that we ask indulgence for a somewhat lengthy 
extract, bearing upon the conflict with General Butler above 
referred to. Says the governor : " There might have been a 
number of counties organized in the eastern part of the state 
lying within the boundaries of the military district of Vir- 



224 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

giiiiaand North Carolina, but for the hostility of the military 
commauder of that district to civil government. General 
Butler commanding that district combined in June last with 
a few persons composed of * the worst rebel sympathizers in 
Norfolk, others representing a liquor monopoly, army follow- 
ers and British subjects, and at their request, (or in his own 
words, they * informed the judgment of the commanding 
general'), he overthrew the republican civil government of 
Virginia established in his district, and on its overthrow 
erected a military despotism instead thereof; and has inaugu- 
rated a reign of terror and torture, a history of which would 
rival the darkest chapters of despotism in the middle ages. 
Union and rebel sympathizers are alike the objects of op- 
pression. Union and rebel families, are heartlessly turned 
out of their houses to make places for families of officers of 
the army and army followers. The appeal of the helpless 
female and tender infant are alike uuavailing. He has seized 
the assessor's books of the municipal government and placed 
them in the hands of the military for collection, and taken 
the direction of all the civil affairs of the state, even to the 
establishment of schools. Persons having taken the oath of 
allegiance under the President's amnesty proclamation, with 
the promise of full pardon, which im|)lies protection, are 
turned out of their property, not for military but for specu- 
lativ^e purposes, to forward the fortunes of Massachusetts 
friends, with the declaration that he intends to .serve all so 
when it suits his purposes. 

" The collectors of state taxes are forbidden to proceed with 
their collections or to pay what they have collected into the 
treasury of the civil government of the state. Printing- 
presses have been seized and a daily newspaper started, which is 
edited by a captain and commissary of subsistence who receives 
hissalary from the United States Government. Twenty or thirty 
soldiers are detailed from the volunteer army of the United 
States to print and peddle the paper for private emolument. 
The great object of the paper, next to private gain, is to dis- 
parage the loyal sentiment and civil government of the 
state. There can be no question but that the military power 
of the department is used for private speculation." 



RECONSTEUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 225 

What wonder that President Lincoln, in conversation with 
Judge Campbell, said of this Alexandria experiment, ^' I have 
a government in Virginia, the Pierpoint government. It 
has but a small margin, and I am not disposed to increase it." 

II. 

RESTORATION. 

The people of the United States, of all sections and par- 
ties, have come to regard it as alike of historical and practi- 
cal interest to ascertain with certainty the opinion of Abra- 
ham Lincoln upon every question affecting the policy or the 
welfare of tlie country. It is generally believed by them 
that at the close of the war, Mr. Lincoln favored a policy of 
restoration of the Southern states, and especially of Virginia, 
to the Union, with the least possible friction, delay or inter- 
ference with their existing organizations. This belief would 
seem to rest on a solid basis of fact. It is consistent with the 
spirit of his proclamation of December 8, 1863, and his 
other official acts and public utterances. It is noticeable also 
that, nearly every historian of the times makes some allusion 
to his views touching peace and reunion, and most of them 
emphasize his liberal sentiments and strong yearning for the 
speedy re-establishment of the Union of the fathers. Henry 
Ward Beecher, whom Mr. Lincoln styled ^^ the foremost 
citizen of the republic," says, in the preface to his famous 
'^ Cleveland Letters : " ^' President Lincoln and Governor 
Andrew, of Massachusetts, in the last conversation which I 
had with them, inclined to the policy of immediate restora- 
tion ; and their views had great weight with me." 

During his brief visit to Richmond, immediately upon its 
occupation by the Federal forces in April, 1865, the Presi- 
dent held two or three memorable interviews with Judge 
John A. Campbell, formerly of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, and later of the Confederate war office, and 
with a committee of citizens, of which Judge Campbell and 
Judge Henry W. Thomas, then Second Auditor of Virginia, 
under the Richmond government, and afterwards Lieutenant- 
Governor of the state, were members. Full details of these 

15 



226 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

interviews may be found in Judge Campbell's pamphlet, en- 
titled " Reminiscences and Documents Relating to the Civil 
AV^ar during the year 1865,'^ and in the September number, 
1889, of the '^Magazine of American History." The ex- 
pressions attributed to Mr. Lnicoln in these narratives are 
marked by that broad common sense and hearty, homely, 
vigor of expression so characteristic of him. They are related ^ 
by gentlemen of the highest character, and bear the unmis- 
takable stamp of genuineness and truth. 

Judge Campbell says that he tokl him ''he wanted the 
very Legislature which had been sitting 'up yonder' — point- 
ing to the capitol — to come together, and to vote to restore 
Virginia to the Union and recall her soldiers from the Con- 
federate Army : " this in immediate connection and contrast 
with the disparaging remark about the Alexandria govern- 
ment above quoted. 

Judge Thomas' account is yet more conclusive, not only as 
his own draft of his sworn testimony as witness in an import- 
ant trial, but because, in answer to his suggestion that Gov- 
ernor Pierpoint be sent down to Richmond, the President 
replied that he did not want him, adding, "The government 
that took Virginia out is the government that should bring 
hei back, and is the government that alone can effect it. . . . 
They must come here to the very place they went out of the 
Union to come back ; and you people will doubtless all return, 
and we shall have old Virginia back again." A second time, 
in reply to some modification of the plan suggested by Judge 
Thomas, he protested, "No! the government that took the 
state out must bring her back." He asked who was governor 
of the State when it seceded ; said he wanted him present, as 
well as Governor Smith, who had left Richmond but two days 
before; spoke of the latter as "Extra Billy," and added, 
making use of some such expletive as "By Jove!" and smi- 
ting the table with his clenched fist, "I want that old game 
cock back here." On the 6th of April the President sent up 
from City Point, whither he had returned, written authority 
to General Weitzel, commanding at Richmond, to permit the 
assembling of the legislature, and a formal call was issued, 
signed by prominent citizens of Virginia, and approved by the 
General commanding. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 227 

After his return to Washington, Mr. Tiincohi recalled this 
permission, and there are those who deny that he ever enter- 
tained the broad and statesmanlike views so freely and em- 
phatically expressed by him while in Richmond. They assert 
that his sole object was to secure the withdrawal of the Vir- 
ginia troops from the Confederate armies, and that his letter 
of April 6th, to General Weitzel, limited the authority of 
the legislature to this single specific matter. They forget 
that this letter, in terms, directed the General to extend his 
"permission" and " protection" to the Assembly '^ until, if at 
all, they attempt any action hostile to the United States."* 

With better apparent reason, they insist that the terms of 
the telegraphic' order withdrawing the authority for the legis- 
lature to assemble clearly exclude the idea that any authority 
was ever given or contemplated to do anything beyond the 
mere recall of the Virginia troops. Those who attribute such 
conclusiv^e weight to the mere phraseology of this order are 
either ignorant of, or overlook, or underrate, the part taken 
in the preparation of the telegram by the most powerful per- 
sonality about Mr. Lincoln, the great War Secretary, iron- 
willed and iron-hearted. It is interesting to note that General 
Grant attributes the entire responsibility for this order of 
recall to Secretary Stanton, who he says " always did in war 
time what he wanted to do.'^f '^ What he wanted to do " 
upon this particular occasion and in this particular matter is 
rendered perfectly clear by his own testimony in the '^Impeach- 
ment Investigation," and when that testimony is read in the 
light of the circumstances surrounding the witness at the 
time it was given, — notwithstanding some superficial con- 
trarieties — it is equally clear what Mr. Lincoln wanted to do, 
and would probably yet have done, if he had lived. Looking/ 
backward, near the close of his tremendous life, Edwin M. 
Stanton said of Abraham Lincoln — *' If he had lived he 
would have had a hard time w^ith his party, as he would have 
been at odds with it on Reconstruction."! One cannot banish 

* Report of the Joint Committee on Conduct of the War, Second Session, 
38th Congress, Part I., 1864-65, pages 521-523; Gen. Weitzel's testimony, 
t Grant's Memoirs, 2d vol. p. 506. 
X McCulloch's " Men and Measures of Half a Century," p. 402. 



228 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the conviction that, " if he had lived," the tender patriot 
heart of Lincoln would have had a harder time with Stanton 
than with any other man of his party. 

When he gave the testimony referred to, Secretary Stanton 
had not come to an open rupture with President Johnson, 
but it was well understood they had differed upon several 
important measures, and were irreconcilably at variance with 
regard especially to lleconstruction, which was, just then 
(May 18th, 1867) the subject of the greatest excitement in 
Congress and throughout the country. Mr. Stanton was re- 
cognized as the strongest man and the ])robable future leader 
of the radical wing of the Republican party, and was of course 
not very anxious that President Jolinson's friends upon the 
committee should make good their main defense, which was 
that President Johnson was simply carrying out the policy of 
President Lincoln. And yet he testitied tliat " The policy of 
undertaking to restore the government through the medium 
of the rebel organizations was . . . strongly and vehe- 
mently opposed by myself," — while he admitted Mr. Lincoln 
favored this policy — that he '' had several earnest conversa- 
tions with him upon the subject, '^ the Attorney-General aiding 
the Secretary .in the last conference, just before the telegram 
to Weitzel recalling tlie permission for the Legislature to 
assemble was sent — that that telegram was prepared at his 
suggestion, in his presence, and under his correction — that 
even " after the surrender of Lee's army and the virtual sup- 
pression of the rebellion," Mr. Lincoln still adhered to his 
idea or plan which ^'included an organization preliminarily 
through the medium of the rebel legislatures " and that at the 
last Cabinet meeting he ever attended, which was after the 
sending of the telegram to Weitzel, ^' the President seemed to 
be laboring under the impression that there must be some 
starting point in the reorganization, and that it could only be 
through the agency of the rebel organizations then existing, 
but which I did not deem to be at all necessary. That night 
Mr. Lincoln was murdered," When reminded that he had 
said he did ^' not think Mr. Lincoln had finally matured any 
plan wdiich he had determined positively to carry out at the 
time of his death," he answered, ^' When I say that, I mean 



EECONSTRUCTION IN" VIRGINIA. 229 

he never expressed any to ine. He made a speech a day or 
two before his death, but I do not remember whether he 
indicated anything as to a plan of organization."'*' 

It is passing strange Mr. Stanton should have been so 
ignorant as to the character and contents of that speech. One 
of the biographers of the martyred President says of it : " On 
the evening of Tuesday, April 11th, Mr. Lincoln was 
serenaded and the general expectation of a somewhat elabor- 
ate speech, giving a definite foreshadowing of his future 
policy in regard to the rebel states, attracted a very large 
gathering of the people. The remarks he designed to make 
on this occasion were carefully written out, and will be ever 
memorable as the final words of political counsel which he 
has left as a legacy to his country." 

The speech is a distinct recognition of the attack already 
begun upon him because of his liberal reconstruction policy, 
and it is as distinct an outlining and defense of that policy as 
was then practicable ; — distinct to this extent at least, that it 
indicates a readiness to recognize that government in a state 
which will soonest bring that state into '' proper practical re- 
lation" to the Union, and it indicates also that the recognition 
of negro suffrage by a state is not regarded as a sine qua non 
to the existence of such " proper practical relation." It 
further discloses a view as to the eflpect of secession upon the 
life and sovereignty of the ^' seceded states, so called," and 
their relations to the Union, widely differing from that upon 
Avhich the Reconstruction Acts were subsequently based. We 
make a single extract. — " We all agree that the seceded states, 
so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the 
Union, and that the sole object of the government, civil and 
military, in regard to those states, is to again get them into 
that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only pos- 
sible, but in fact easier to do this without deciding, or even 
considering, whether these states have ever been out of the 
Union. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be 
utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let 
us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper 
practical relations between these states and the Union, and 

* Reports of Committees 1st Session, 40th Congress, 1867, pp. 395-405. 



230 WPIY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion wliether, 
in doino; the acts, he brou(]jht the states from without into the 
Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never hav- 
ing been out of it." * 

Was ever paragraph penned more full of feeling, of prac- 
tical sense, of patriotism, of statesmanship? Great head, 
great heart ! how many years of happy reunited life did the 
nation lose by his death ? 

III. 

REORGANIZATION. 

From '61 to '65 the government of Virginia, at Richmond, 
undoubtedly received the loyal and hearty support of the 
overwhelming majority of the citizens of the commonwealth. 
When, in April, '65, it became evident that the Southern Con- 
federacy was a dream never to be realized, that government, 
under a liberal and conciliatory ])olicy at Washington, could 
and would have united and led the people of the state, as no 
other government could, in restoring Virginia to her place in 
the Union. This had been Mr. Lincoln's idea. Whether or 
not it would have been revived and realized if he had lived 
no one can say, but there was certainly no suggestion of such 
revival, from any quarter, after his death. That fearful shock 
for a time paralyzed North and South alike. 

On the 9th of May, 1861, however, President Johnson 
issued executive orders annulling all the acts and proceedings 
of the Confederate and State governments at Richmond, and 
recognizing the Pierpoint government as the true and 
lawful government of Virginia. But even in advance of 
this, the inexorable logic of events had been fully recognized 
by the people of the state, and, on the 8th of May, pursuant 
to notice, a large public meeting was held in Augusta county, 
at the suggestion and under the chairmanship and guidance of 
the Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, a gentleman of the highest char- 
acter and ability and the ripest culture and experience. The 

^ Barrett's " Life, Speeches and Services of Abraham Lincoln," pages 

780-784. 



RECOXSTEUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 231 

proceedings of this meeting demonstrated a thorough compre- 
hension of the situation, and a thoroughly practical and 
proper spirit in dealing with it, on the part of the people 
generally as well as of their leaders. It culminated in a 
recommendation for a state convention, and the appointment 
of a committee to ascertain whether the military authorities at 
Richmond would authorize an election for that purpose. This 
meeting was followed by others of like character throughout 
the commonwealth, but of course the necessity for a conven- 
tion was largely superseded by the action of President Johnson. 

Governor Pierpoint arrived in Richmond on the 23rd of 
May, and it is said the entire legislative and executive depart- 
ments of his government, and the archives as well, were 
transported from the steamer to the capitol in an ambulance. 
AYhether this report is true or not, it might well have been. 

There is something almost grotesque in the idea of such a 
government, elected as this had been, assuming control of 
such a commonwealth as Virginia. Yet it is fair to add that 
the practical wisdom of Governor Pierpoint in holding on 
through snubs and sneers as the governor of "Restored Vir- 
ginia" at Alexandria, was vindicated by the result, — and that 
his administration at Richmond was in the main liberal and 
patriotic, though of course embarrassed by the co-existence 
and operation of the military control established by the United 
States ; the military and civil authorities both taking part in 
the reorganization of the state, the former exhibiting probably 
a little more consideration for the latter than Gen. Butler had 
done in Norfolk a year before. Being satisfied, both from 
information and experiment, that even a decent organization 
was impracticable in most of the counties of the common- 
wealth, without the repeal of the disfranchising and disquali- 
fying clauses of the Alexandria constitution, the governor 
called his pigmy legislature together in special session at Rich- 
mond, on the 20th of June, 1865, and in his message to them, 
said : " It is folly to suppose that a state could be governed 
under a republican form of government, wherein a large 
portion of the state, nineteen-twentieths of the people, are 
disfranchised and cannot hold office." The state constitution 
fortunately giving the legislature some control of this sub- 



232 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ject, measures were promptly passed providing for partial re- 
lief from these disqiialitications, by constitutional anieudnient, 
to be submitted to popular vote. The good sense, liberality 
and patriotism thus displayed, both by the Governor and the 
Assembly, so far conciliated and enheartened the people of 
the state that, on the 12th of October, elections were held 
generaUy throughout Virginia, for members of the Assembly 
and of Congress, and upon the proposed amendment to the con- 
stitution which was adopted by an overwhelming majority, the 
bitter partisan feeling afterwards engendered by the long agony 
and fierce struggles of reconstruction not- being as yet aroused. 
Thus the shackles of war legislation were stricken from the 
limbs of her sons, and the ancient Commonwealth fully or- 
ganized and equipped stood ready to advance and reoccuj)yher 
old position in the American Union of sovereign and coequal 
states. Her right to do so would appear to have been un- 
assailable even by the most prejudiced political foe. She was 
ready and offered herself, with a government organized in the 
dark days of secession, under the immediate suggestion and 
supervision of Federal authority, and consecrated by tlie 
devotion of the handful of Virginians then and ever loyal and 
faithful to the Union, — a government afterwards recognized 
by the Congress of the United States as the true and lawful 
government of Virginia, upon whose rightful authority and 
consent, according to the theory of Congress, were based the 
division of the old Commonwealth, the existence and ad- 
mission of West Virginia, and the transfer and annexation of 
Berkeley and Jefferson counties to that state, — a government 
recognized also by the executive of the ^United States, in 
solemn presidental proclamation of its legitimate right, — a 
government at last happily acquiesced in and supported by 
substantially all the citizens of Virginia. 

IV. 

DESTRUCTION. 

The life of the state and the hopes of her people beat high 
when, upon the assembling of Congress in December, 18G5, 
the duly accredited representatives of Virginia repaired to the 



EECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 233 

national capitol. Having deposited their credentials with 
the clerk they took their seats upon the floor, l)ut, upon the 
preliminary call of the House, it appeared that the clerk had 
not entered the name of a single representative of a southern 
state upon the roll. There was no opportunity for defense or 
debate, not even for protest. The outrage was consummated 
as soon as suggested. Upon what ground can it be defended ? 

Here was no exclusion of individuals, by test-oath or for 
personal disqualification. The thing was done wholesale, 
and of necessity upon the theory, that " the late rebel states '' 
were not entitled to representation. 

Why ? Was it that these states did not have a republican 
form of government, and that Congress felt bound to guarantee 
this to them ; or, that they did not seem likely to have a 
republican majority in elections, and that Congress felt 
anxious to guarantee this to them ? From 1861-64 " restored 
Virginia ^Miad been represented in Congress — was her con- 
stitution republican in form from 1861-64, and unrepublican 
in 1865? And if so, did the existence of test-oaths and dis- 
franchisements and disqualifications make her original con- 
stitution republican, and the expurgation of tliese features 
make her amended constitution unrepublican ? Was the 
Pierpoint government of Virginia entirely satisfactory while 
it did not actually represent one in twenty of her citizens, and 
entirely unsatisfactory when it came to represent all of them ? 
Were the constitutions of the several northern states, which 
in 1865 did not recognize negro suffrage, republican in form, 
and the constitutions of the southern states, which did not 
embody such recognition, unrepublican ? 

These are grave questions. We throw what light we may 
upon their solution, by laying upon the conscience of an 
intelligent and candid people, one question more. Would the 
representatives from the southern states have been barred 
out of Congress in 1865, if, either with or without negro suf- 
frage, these states had been so organized as to give fair 
assurance of substantial republican majorities ? 

However this may be, two things at least are clear : first, 
there was nothing in the condition of affairs in Virginia — no 
resistance to national authority, no excitement, no disorder, 



234 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

no insecurity of life or property — which even approximated 
to a justification of this sudden smothering of the fresh life 
of the state, the fresh hopes of her people ; and second, this 
summary ejection of her representativ^es, without reason 
assigned or chance to be heard, did more to engender in Vir- 
ginia a deep sense of wrong, and to retard the return of good 
feeling, than the entire military operations of any one year of 
the war. 

It should be remembered that the mass of the people of 
"Virginia, having been honestly and heartily devoted to the 
cause of the Confederacy, justly felt that they had gone very 
far in the direction of concession and conciliation, when they 
accepted and " honestly and cordially sustained " the Pier- 
point government, thus adding to it the great seal of popular 
ratification, which it specially lacked, and for lack of which it 
had been frequently sneered at, even b}'' the extreme leaders of 
its own party. They felt, too, that that government and the 
state organized under it stood, or ought to stand, in an excep- 
tionally strong position with the congress and government of 
the United States, as having furnished not only the first 
nucleus and ral lying-point for Union sentiment in the south, 
but also the first suggestion and model for Union organiza- 
tion, as Attorney- General Bates expressed it, "the plan 
adopted both by Virginia and the general government for 
the reorganization of the revolted states and the restoration 
of the integrity of the Union.'' And they further felt it to 
be an utter violation, not only of logical and legal consistency, 
but of good faith, to hold the Pierpoint government, even 
without popular support, basis sufficient for the creation and 
admission of West Virginia, — and yet, with popular support 
added, insufficient for the statehood and admission of Virginia 
herself. 

V. 

RECONSTRUCTION. 

On December 4, 1865, the first day of the first session of 
the Thirty-ninth Congress, and the very day the represen- 
tatives of Virginia and of the other southern states were so 



EECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 235 

summarily ejected from the House of Representatives, Mr. 
Thaddeus Stevens, who was rapidly forging to the front as 
the leader of his party upon the floor, introduced his famous 
resolution for the appointment of the joint committee of fif- 
teen, popularly termed the Reconstruction Committee, charged 
with the duty of inquiring into the condition of the southern 
states, and reporting whether any of them w^ere entitled to 
representation in either house of Congress ; — and, uj^on this 
pregnant resolution, the mover called the previous question. 

Debate being thus shut off, the resolution w^as carried by a 
party vote of 133 to 36. The Senate amended by striking out 
a clause which provided that no member should be admitted 
from any of these states, until the report of the Joint Com- 
mittee should be formally acted on by Congress, which clause 
Senator Doolittle termed '^a dissolution of the Union by act 
of Congress.'^ But even this fearful feature, little if at all 
modified, was subsequently passed, as the battle between 
Congress and the President grew hotter. 

^'It was foreseen," says Mr. Blaine, on page 127 of vol. 2 
of his book, ^^ that, in an especial degree, the fortunes of 
the republican party would be in the keeping of the fifteen 
men who might be chosen-.'' Was it not foreseen, that the 
fortunes of this great country, and of those unfortunate 
states, would be in their keeping also ? Or, Avere these con- 
siderations overlooked, or too little appreciated to be pro- 
perly responded to, in the selection of "the fifteen men''? 

However this may be, the fact is that 12 Republicans 
and but 3 Democrats were appointed, and there was not a 
single Democrat upon the sub-committee wdiich ^'did" Vir- 
ginia. Whether or not the members of the joint committee 
"foresaw" what their great leader did, they certainly took 
care of " the fortunes of the party," and let the country 
take care of itself. Their report was what an experienced 
and unprejudiced man might have predicted, and their bills 
also, which, after long incubation, were hatched out in the 
spring of 1867. 

The character and contents of the first great bill are wtII 
known : — its preamble reciting that no legal republican 
governments, and no adequate protection for life or pro- 



236 WHY THE SOLtD SOUTH? 

perty exist in " the rebel states/' — the degradation of these 
states into military districts, and their complete subjection to 
military control, — the rigorous disfranchisement of most of 
those who had theretofore been prominent and influential in 
the community, and who would naturally possess most of the 
qualities and experience so imperatively demanded by the 
state in such a crisis, — the long road out again to civil liberty 
and sovereign statehood, hedged about with hard conditions. 



BRIEF REVIEW. 

It may be well to go back a little, in order to get a correct 
conception of the condition of affairs and course of events in 
Virginia, and the changes, if any, introduced by the recon- 
struction acts. From the day of the occu[)ation of the capitol 
by the Federal forces, in April, 1865, there had been continu- 
ouslv a military commandant of the Department, with head- 
quarters at Richmond, — one officer succeeding another, as the 
exigencies of the military service might require. Meanwhile, 
certainly from and after the arrival of Governor Pierpoint, in 
the latter part of May, the operations of civil government — 
state and municipal, legislative, executive and judicial — went 
on, theoretically independent of, but practically co-ordinate 
with, or rather subordinate to, the military. There was, of 
course, constant fettering and embarrassment of the civil 
government, and ever and anon occurred irritating clashings 
of the two powers, interferences by the military, and humilia- 
tions of the civil ; e. g. : — 

General Terry, by military order of date January 24th, 
1866, nullified an act of the General Asser-nbly of Virginia, 
directing that no civil officer or other person should attempt 
to enforce or apply the statute in certain cases. 

General Turner, in August, 1866, forbade the organization 
of the Council of the City of Richmond, upon the ground 
that certain other city officers, recently elected, had been 
officers in the Confederate army ; and when the obnoxious per- 
sons, to save further friction, declined to accept their respec- 
tive offices, Generals Turner and Terry still refused to allow 
the Council to meet, until it became absolutely necessary, in 



KECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 237 

order to prepare for the state election, and even then re- 
quired the resignation of certain members of the council also. 

General Schofield, having rearrested Dr. James L, Watson, 
who had been arrested and tried by a Virginia court, upon 
the charge of murdering a negro, in Rockbridge county, and 
acquitted, — on the 19th of December, 1866, refused to obey a 
writ of habeas corpus from the Circuit Court of the City of 
Richmond, stating in answer to the writ, his intention to have 
Dr. Watson retried for his life before a military court organ- 
ized in connection with the Freedraan's Bureau, under the 
fearful powers conferred upon that institution by the supple- 
mental act of July 16th, 1866. In one aspect it^ lightens, 
and in another it deepens, the shading of this picture, to learn 
that the Attorney-General of the United States prompt) v pro- 
nounced this Freedman's Bureau court to be utterly without 
jurisdiction in the premises, and that Watson was released by 
order of the President. 

In these dark days such wrongs were common, and in esti- 
mating the self-restraint, good sense and good feeling dis- 
played by the people of Virginia during the entire period of 
military control, regard should be had to the repeated exas- 
perations to which they were subjected. One of the most 
intense and demoralizing of these — not, it is true, strictly 
connected with reconstruction — was the proclamation of Pres- 
ident Johnson, of May 2d, 1865, charging the late President 
of the Confederacy, and other gentlemen of character and 
position, with complicity in the murder of President Lincoln, 
and putting a price upon their heads. 

The Freedman's Bureau, with the demoralization of labor 
and annoyance to the employer of labor, resulting from the 
incitement of vain hopes and utterly inappropriate notions in 
the colored race, and its assumption of petty police as well 
as graver criminal jurisdiction, over both races, was a source 
of constant and wide-spread irritation. At this distance from 
the date and the fact, it is difficult to conceive of a state of 
things, in which a gentleman of age and position would feel 
compelled to ride, perhaps twenty miles and back, in mid- 
winter, over shociking roads, upon a most informal notifica- 
tion, delivered perchance by the hand of the complainant 



238 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

himself, requiring the defendant to appear before some petty 
provost marshal or Freedman's Bureau agent, and answer a 
charge of uttering "offensive language,'^ say, to the cowboy 
on his plantation. Yet, in the country districts of Virginia, 
from 1865 to 1869, sucli experiences were by no means un- 
usual. 

LEGISLATION AFFECTING FREEDMEN. 

Unfairness in the legislation of the southern states, in 
1865-66, witii reference to the freedmen, is the justification 
mainly pleaded for the harsher terms of reconstruction im- 
posed after that date. The attempt has been also made, upon 
this ground, to justify the refusal of the House of Represent- 
atives to admit the delegations elected from the southern 
states to the Thirty-ninth Congress. In the case of Virginia, 
at least, this attempt utterly fails ; for the exclusion of her 
representatives occurred December 4th, 1865, while her 
"Vagrant Act,'' the only statute of the session we have ever 
seen specified as unfair to freedmen, was passed January 15th, 
1866. 

Professor Alexander Johnston, the able and distinguished 
author of the article on Reconstruction, in the 3d volume 
of the Cyclopedia of Political Science, speaking of the defeat 
of the milder "Presidential Plan," the substitution for it of 
the harsher "Congressional Plan," and of the vindication and 
endorsement of the latter in the popular elections at the 
North, says: "The controlling reason will be found in the 
constant irritation kept up by the general cast of the legisla- 
tion in regard to freedmen, by the reconstructed legislatures 
of 1865-66." Such a charge, from such a source, should be 
squarely met, and we feel no hesitation in saying of this also, 
that It is baseless so -far as Virginia Is concerned. 

With regard to the general criminal legislation of the 
southern states during this period and affecting this class. 
Prof. Johnston makes this handsome and deserved concession : 
" Taken as a whole and considered as the work of men who 
had, within a year, been absolute masters of the freedmen, 
and who had been dispossessed of their control by war and 
conquest, it must be conceded that it exhibits remarkable self- 



KECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 239 

control, public spirit and equity/' He also calls attention to 
the conspicuous equity of the Virginia statute regulating con- 
tracts between blacks and whites. But he adds a sweeping 
condemnation of " the vagrancy and stay laws passed by most 
of the southern legislatures.^^ The " stay " laws in no way 
concerned freedmen, and it is enough to say of the Virginia 
stay law, that after the expiraticm of the period fixed by the 
legislature for its operation, it was several times extended by 
order of the military commander of the district. 

The " Vagrant Act '' of Virginia, Acts Qo-Q, Chap. 28, is 
the statute which General Terry would not allow to be euforced 
as to the freedraen, stating the reasons for his action in an 
inflammatory order published far and wide, and Prof. Johnston 
not only endorses Terry's views, but adds a stricture of his 
own, to wit : " The Virginia act declared all persons vagrants 
who . . . broke a contract with an employer, and in this case 
authorized the employer to work the runaway an additional 
month with ball and chain, if necessary/' What wonder, 
that, by orders such as Terry's and statements such as this, 
" the Northern heart was ftred against the South,'' and the 
harsh reconstruction policy of Congress endorsed in the popu- 
lar elections ! , Such a statute would indeed be monstrous, 
but there never has been such a statute in Virginia. Her 
people, thank God ! with all their faults, have too strong a 
sense of humanity and justice, and sound policy, even to con- 
template such an enactment. Accurate as Prof. Johnston 
usually is, he cannot be pardoned for this misstatement. 

The^-rs^ section of the act has to do only with the arrest, 
trial and punishment of vagrants — the second is the section 
which defines the crime of vagrancy, and it begins with these 
words : " The following described persons shall be liable to 
the penalties imposed on vagrants ;" and then follow five 
paragraphs descriptive of five difi'ereut classes of persons. 
The classification is too long to quote. Suffice it to say there 
is not even the most remote approximation to the specification 
that merely breaking a contract of employment constitutes a 
laborer a vagrant. A glance at the first section of the act 
will explain Prof. Johnston's mistake. That section allowed 
the condemned vagrant to be hired out by the proper officers, 



240 '^^'HY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

his wages to be applied '^ for the use of the vagrant or his 
family " — and then follows this provision : " And if any such 
vagrant or vagrants shall, daring such time of service, iciihout 
sufficient cause, run away from the person so employing him 
or them, he or they shall be apprehended, on the ivarrant of 
a justice, and returned to the custody of such hirer, Avho 
shall have, free of any further hire, the services of said 
vagrant for one month in addition to the original term of 
hiring; and said employer shall then have the power, if au- 
thorized by the justice, to work said vagrant confined with 
hall and chain.^' 

We have no desire to reflect upon General Terry's state, — 
indeed, next perhaps to Virginia, or at least high upon the 
list of states, we love Connecticut. But, apropos of the sug- 
gested brutality of *^ ball and chain" put so prominently for- 
ward in comments by northern men upon this A^irginia act, 
we quote for the benefit of General Terry, or any other citi- 
zen of '' the wooden nutmeg state '' who may care to make a 
study of the comparative civilization of A^irginia and Con- 
necticut, the corresponding provision of the Connecticut act, 
upon the same subject at the same date. As in the case of 
our Virginia statute, we italicize those clauses which specially 
point the comparison. General Statutes of Connecticut, page 
642, Section 72. " If any offender shall abscond, escape or 
depart from the work-house, vithout license, the master shall 
have power to pursue, retake and bring him back, and to 
require all necessary aid for that purpose, and when brought 
back the master may confine him to his work hy fetters or 
shackles, or in such manner as he may judge necessary ; or may 
put him in close confinement until he shall submit to the reg- 
ulations of the work-house ; and for every escape such 
offender shall be holden to labor in the w^ork-house for the 
term of one month, in addition to the time for which he was 
first committed.'^ 

General Terry's objections to the A'^irginia statute were 
based upon the definition of "vagrant," embodied in the 
second paragraph of the second section, wlilch is in these 
words : " All persons who, not having wherewith to main- 
tain themselves and their families, live idly and without em- 



RECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 241 

ployment, aDd refuse to work for the usual and common 
wages giv^en to the laborers in the like work in the place 
where they then are." He makes, substantially, three points, 
viz..: 1st. Combinations of employei's, to depress wages be- 
low a living rate, with the further evil-intent of punishing, 
as criminals, freed men who refuse to work for these inade- 
quate wages, exist in Virginia. 2d. Ev^en where they do 
not, "the temptation to form them offered by the statute will 
be too strong to be resisted." 3d. The effect of the statute 
will be to reduce the freedmen to "a condition which will be 
slavery in all but its name,* ... a condition of servitude 
worse than that from which they have been emancipated." 

The people of Virginia feel that a great wrong was done 
them by General Terry, and that great evil followed. It is 
impossible to say to what extent their subsequent hard bond- 
age in the reconstruction mills is chargeable to the wide circu- 
lation of his ill-advised and ill-tempered order of January 
24th, 1866. 

His first position was promptly challenged at the time. 
During that year a Richmond paper truly and temperately 
said : " It is the misfortune, rather than the fault, of the 
Virginia agriculturist that he cannot offer higher wages to the 
negro. The want of capital, the exhausted condition of the 
state and the unsettled state of the country, forbid that 
he should compete with farmers of more jirosperous states." 
Not only did poverty explain and excuse low wages, but, as 
to the true construction and intent of the act, it would 
seem obvious to any unprejudiced mind, that the clausQ Gen. 
Terry took exception to, viz. : that, in order to be held "va- 
grants," laborers must "refuse to work for the usual and 
common wages given to other laborers, in the like ivork, in the 
place where they then are," was inserted not for the oppres- 
sion, but for the protection of the freedmen. As to the second 
and third points made in his order, it is sufficient to say, that 
although the- act in question is now and has ever since con- 
tinuously been upon the statute book of Virginia, the Repub- 
lican party having also, at one time, had control of legisla- 
tion, yet no one, save General Terry, has ever seen in the 
provision above quoted a cunning and cruel engine for the 

16 



242 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

oppression of the freedmen, and they have certainly not been 
reduced to slavery by it. 

The sad condition of the South at this crisis, and the urgent 
demand for strong state legislation to restrain vagrancy and 
the wanton idleness whicdi ever follows war and sudden eman- 
cipation, have been so frequently and fully set forth, that we 
forbear, merely suggesting the contrast between the spirit of 
Gen. Terry's order, and that of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation 
of December 8th, 1863, which pledged the ^'National Execu- 
tive" in advance, to be satisfied with ''any provision which 
may be adopted by a state government in relation to the 
freed people of such state, which shall recognize and declare 
their permanent freedom, provide for their education ^^ and 
yet deal appropriately with them "as a laboring, landless, 
homeless class." 

The Legislature of '65-6, struck the key-note of the entire 
work of the session as aifecting freedmen, in the 3rd of a 
series of resolutions touching reconstruction, adopted by that 
body and addressed to the President of the United States. It 
is in these words: "3. That involuntary servitude except 
for crime is abolished, and ought not to be re-established, and 
the negro race among us should be treated with justice, 
humanity, and good faith, and every means that the wisdom 
of the legislature can devise should be adopted to make them 
useful and intelligent members of society." Virginia at this 
early date had no money to expend in education. As soon 
and as far as she had, she did her full duty, in this respect 
also, to the colored people of the state, and continues to do it, 
dividing the public school fund between whites and blacks in 
proportion to numbers, the colored people of course paying 
but an insignificant proportion of the taxes from which the 
fund is derived. 

The following is a brief summary of the session's work, so 
far as it affected the freedmen. 

No law was passed unjustly discriminating against them. 

Laws were passed to the following effect, to wit: 

Cydminal and Police Regulations. — All laws in respect to 
crimes, punishments and criminal proceedings applicable to 
"white persons were made applicable to colored persons, unless 



EECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 243 

where otherwise specially provided: no provisions to the contrary 
are now recalled, and it is safe to say no important ones 
existed. 

The following acts and parts of acts were repealed : 

All relating to slaves and slavery. — Chapters 107, 200, 212 
and 98 of the code relating respectively to free negroes, of- 
fenses by negroes, proceedings against negroes, and patrols, — 
sundry other minor provisions affecting negroes, — and all 
acts and parts of acts imposing on negroes the penalty of 
stripes, where the same penalty is not imposed on white 
persons. 

Family Relations. — Colored persons living together, at the 
passage of the act, as husband and wife, even if not legally 
married, shall be regarded and treated as if they were, and 
their children as legitimate, — and even where they have 
ceased so to cohabit before the passage of this act, all children 
of the woman acknowledged by the man to be his shall be 
deemed legitimate. 

Testimony. — The testimony of colored persons shall be re- 
ceived in all cases where a colored person is a party, or his 
rights are involved, and shall be taken ore tenus, special pro- 
vision being made for the court's certifying it if desired or 
deemed proper. 

Contracts and Labor. — No contract between a white and 
colored person for the employment of the latter for a period 
longer than two months shall be binding on such colored per- 
son, unless in writing, signed and acknowledged by both par- 
ties before an appropriate officer, or two or more credible wit- 
nesses in the place where the white person resides or the work 
is to be done, who must also certify that the contract before 
being acknowledged was read and explained to the colored 
person. 

Now, bearing in mind that the negro was not yet a voter, 
and also bearing in mind the magnanimous but very just and 
pertinent reflection of Prof. Johnston, that all this legislation 
was '* the work of men who had, within a year, been ab- 
solute masters of the freed men, and who had been dispos- 
sessed of their control by war and conquest,^' — is not this 
entire scheme and system deserving of the high encomium 



244 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

pronounced by Prof. Johnston upon a part of it, to wit : 
that " it exhibits remarkable self-control, public spirit and 
equity.'^ 

t We shall not review the legislation of the subsequent ses- 
sion, because, the charge against which we are endeavoring to 
defend Virginia, and the evil which followed to her and her 
sister southern states, is connected exclusively with the legis- 
lation of 1865-1866. Prof. Johnston says: ''Before Con- 
gress met in December 1865, the mass of legislation above 
summarized had fairly taken shape; and ... it had al- 
ready swung the whole Republican ])arty into opposition to 
tlie Presidential policy." No exception so far as we know 
has ever been taken to the legislation of Virginia in 
1866-1867, except that, having abolished slavery and its 
traces, the old commonwealth went no further in ratifying the 
amendments to the constitution of the United States, as they 
were successively proposed, nor until such ratification was 
made a condition precedent to the restoration of her rights. 
For states of the North, the ratification of these provisions 
might well be regarded as a matter of course, but for Virginia 
— with slavery and defeat behind, and disfranchisement and 
the fearful mass of ignorant suffrage before — the question 
presented was a very different one. Every fair-minded man 
will admit the force of this suggestion. 

THE COURTS UNDER RECONSTRUCTION. 

No department of the government, no institntion of so- 
ciety, felt the blasting touch of reconstruction as did the 
courts. 

It is difficult to estimate the inconvenience, embarrass- 
ment and loss to the people of the state involved, in the 
turning out of office of over a hundred trained clerks of 
coiu'ts — and these old Virginia clerks were a rare and admir- 
able class of men — their places being filled for the most part, 
and, it is fair to add, of necessity, by incompetent and worth- 
less adventurers. If this be a just reflection, what shall be 
said of the removal by military order of a pure, learned and 
able judiciary, and the elevation to their seats of a set of men 



EECONSTKUCTIOX IN VIRGINIA. 245 

who, stating the case most favorably for thera, as a 
rule lacked the most essential requisites for the efficient dis- 
charge of their responsible duties. The writer has appeared, 
in a Circuit Court of Virginia, before a bench upon which 
sat a so-called judge, who had the day before been a clerk in 
a village grocery store, and who was not better fitted for the 
dignity and duty devolved upon him than the average grocery 
clerk would be. 

It has well nigh passed out of the appreciative recollection 
even of the bar of the state, that pages 544 to 569 of 19th 
Grattau are taken up with the decisions of the " Military 
Court of Appeals '^ composed of two soldiers and one 
civilian, Major H. B. Burnham, President of the Court, 
being an officer of General Schofield's staff. Two United 
States soldiers detailed by military order for service upon the 
bench of the court of last resort, in the state which gave John 
Marshall to the jurisprudence of the nation and of the 
w^orld ! It has always been understood that the two military 
officers, during their judicial service, continued to draw their 
pay as soldiers from the United States, while drawing their 
salaries as judges from the state of Virginia ; but, they were 
men of ability and dignity, and there was certainly nothing 
discreditable in their bearing, or in the discharge of their 
duty as judges. 

As above intimated, however, the average appointee of the 
military to judicial position in Virginia was a prodigy of 
ignorance and incompetence. A now prominent member of 
the Richmond bar vouches for the absolute accuracy of this 
recital. During reconstruction times, handing some papers 
one day to the legal luminary who then presided over and 
enlightened our most important city court, the judge said, 
^' Mr. G., pardon me, you are a young man, I take the liberty 
of pointing out to you your mistakes. I see you have 
"p. q.^' at the foot of your bill. Mr. L. is a good lawyer, 
isn't he?" — taking some papers from his pocket — ''You see 

he signs his paper ' L. p. d." This eminent jurist did not 

even comprehend the cabalistic abbreviations for the plaintiff 
and defendant sides of a case, as familiar in the law as 
'^ Dr./' for a physician or '^ Rev." for a minister in ordinary 



246 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

life. He would have sympathized with the embarrassment 
of King James presiding in the King's Bench, for, like his 
Sovereign Majesty, he always thought the last the strongest 
reason. In a case in which both law and fact were submitted 
to the court, the writer once heard his honor reverse him- 
self twice within half an hour — interrupting first the 
plaintifi's counsel, then the defendant's, and again the plain- 
tiff's, saying, at each interruption, that the counsel w^as " mani- 
festly right," and directing the clerk to enter judgment for 
his client^ 

Our United States District Judge during the reconstruction 
period was the Hon. John C. Underwood, and he usually 
presided in the Circuit Court also. He was a political bigot, 
as blind and fanatical as ever sat upon the bench. If a case 
had any political complexion, it had for him but one side. 
Thrusting out its tentacles everywhere and sucking in jurisdic- 
tion of everything at least, that seemed likely to benefit the 
party — with the aid of its bankruptcy powers and machinery — 
political his court became and continued long to be the most 
powerful engine in the state. Poor old Underwood ! if he had 
been only blind and bigoted. Perhaps there never was judge or 
man so little in danger of being libeled as he, for his moral 
and judicial photograph is impressed indelibly upon the 
record of two causes — McVeigh vs. United States^ 11 Wal., 
259, and Undencood vs. 3Ig Veigh, 23 Grat , 409. It clearly 
appears from these cases that, in the year 1862, while sitting 
at Alexandria, as Judge of the United States District Court, 
he tried a libel, under the act of July, 1862, for forfeiture of 
the real estate of one McVeigh, who appeared by counsel, an- 
swered, and claimed his property. Underwood'' ordered that 
the appearance, answer and claim be stricken from the files, for 
the reason that the defendant is a resident of the city of 
Richmond, within the Confederate lines, and a rebel.'' The 
same day he entered a decree of sale, and at the sale himself 
bought the house in the name of his wife, and moved into it. 
Upon McVeigh's appeal, the Supreme Court said : " In our 
judgment the District Court committed a serious error in 
ordering the claim and answ^er of the defendant to be stricken 
from the files. As we are unanimous in this conclusion, our 



KECONSTRUCTIOX IN VIEGrNIA. 247 

opluloii will be confined to that subject. The order, in eflPect, 
denied the respondent a hearing. It is alleged that he was in 
the position of an alien enemy and hence could have no locus 
standi in that forum. If assailed there he could defend 
there. The liability and the right are inseparable. A differ- 
ent result would be a blot upon our jurisprudence and civil- 
ization. We cannot hesitate or doubt on the subject. It 
would be contrary to the first principles of the social compact, 
and of the right administration of justice.'^ 

It well illustrates the character of the radical Republican 
party of Virginia at this period, that this man was chosen as 
the president of the Reconstruction Constitutional Convention, 
and that a republican State convention in the year 1866, 
petitioned Congress to remove Governor Pierpoint and ap- 
point a provisional governor, and that ^'the Hon. John C. 
Underwood, the faithful patriot and distinguished jurist, who 
has always adhered to the government with a fidelity which 
no flattery could seduce, no bribery corrupt, nor fears intimi- 
date, be selected as said provisional governor.'^ 

Not only w^as the personnel of the reconstruction courts 
generally contemptible, but their status and position was worse. 
It is deeply mortifying to an American citizen to recall the 
fact that any circumstances could have been considered as 
justifying the absolute and abject humiliation of the Courts 
of Justice under the power of the military. Yet so it was, 
not in practice only, but in theory and upon principle, in the 
days of reconstruction. On the 28th of May, 1867, Gen. 
Schofield issued general orders, No. 31, which embodied a sort 
of judicial organization of his district, by the appointment of 
"Military Commissioners'^ clothed with judicial powers "to 
be selected from the officers of the army and the Freed man's 
Bureau, who were to be governed in the discharge of their 
duties, by the laws of Virginia, so far as the same are not in 
conflict with the laws of the United States, or orders issued 
from these headquarters." 

Although it was elsewhere stated in the order that "It is 
intended to aid the civil authorities, and not to supersede them 
except in cases of necessity," yet the following paragraphs 
clearly reveal the true relation of these military commissioners, 



248 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

and of the military power generally, to the civil courts: 
"Where parties are held for trial, either in confinement or 
under bail, such full statement will be made of the facts in 
each case as will enable the Commanding General to decide 
whether the case shall be tried by a military commission or 
be brought before a civil court. 

" Trial by the civil courts will be preferred in all cases 
where there is satisfactory reason to believe that justice will 
be done. But, until the orders of the Comjnandiug General 
are made known in any case, the paramount jurisdiction as- 
sumed by the military commissioners will be exclusive.'^ 

In addition to this general and systematic dependence of the 
courts, in the fundamental point of jurisdiction, upon the de- 
cision of the Commanding General, even where they were 
allowed to take jurisdiction of causes, the judgments rendered 
by them were frequently set aside, Avithout ap})eal or other 
regular process of review, upon mere military order, of which 
the following is a sample. There is recorded upon the order 
book of Amelia County Court, under date of November 28th, 
1868, an extract from special orders No. 220, (by Maj. Gen. 
Stoneman), dated Headquarters, Richmond, Va., November 
23rd, 1868, setting aside the verdict and judgment of Amelia 
County Court, imposing a fine of fifty dollars ($50) and costs 
on Mrs. Turner, for selling goods without license, granting 
her a new trial and ordering fine and costs paid by her to be 
refunded, if not already paid into the state treasury; and 
charging the military commissioner for the tenth division of 
Virginia, with the execution of this order; signed, S. F. Chal- 
fin, assistant Adjutant-General. County Court ordered new 
trial, signed, W. A. Phillips, P. J. P. 

The writer is personally cognizant of sev^eral such orders, 
and presumes there are scores if not hundreds of them, more 
or less fully entered upon the records of the courts of the state. 
While, in most cases, the judges and magistrates were as 
compliant as was the County Court of Amelia, yet there were 
not wanting instances in which the rough shock struck fire, as 
in the case of a sturdy old magistrate of the Shenandoah 
valley, a man of the highest character and ability, and widely 
influential in the region. Receiving an order somewhat sim- 



KECOXSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 249 

ilar to the above, the old Virgiuian rejjlied substantially as 
follows : " I assure you I write this letter in no truculent 
spirit, but I am deeply moved and mortified. I acted in the 
matter in question and am acting now, conscientiously, as a 
sworn officer of what you are pleased to term * District 
No. 1,' but I the Commonwealth of Virginia. I tried this 
negro fairly — I convicted him justly — I have imprisoned him 
securely. — If you insist upon his release, you will have to 
come up and bring the soldiers of the United States with you, 
and in that case I shall order out th-e posse of the county, 
and make the best resistance I can.'^ It is refreshing to know 
that the dauntless courage of the heroic magistrate kindled a 
glow of sympathetic admiration in the bosom of the chivalrous 
soldier commanding the District, and that the matter was ar- 
ranged in some way, without humiliating the grand old man. 

What wonder that the majestic Chief Justice of the United 
States, when urged to go to Richmond and open the Circuit 
Court for the trial of Sir. Davis, refused to do so while the 
sword hung above the judgment seat — saying that "He could 
not, consistently with his views of public duty hold a quasi 
military court, nor could he hold a court in any district in a 
state lately in rebellion, until all semblance of military con- 
trol over Federal courts and their process and proceedings 
had been removed by the action of the political department.'' 
" I do not wish, so long as — with my notions — I represent 
the justice of the nation in its highest seat, to hold any court, 
in the lately — rebel states, until all possibility of claim that 
the judicial is subordinate to the military power is removed 
by express declaration from the President." * 

Noble words ! How they stir a lawyer's blood — how they 
elevate our conception of Chief Justice Chase — what a flood of 
light they let in upon " Reconstruction and the Courts." 

1 86 7.— SKETCH.— 1 870. 

The change introduced by the reconstruction acts was 
simply that we of " the lately — rebel states " knew where we 

* Schucker's " Life of Chief Justice Chase," pages 538-9, 537. 



250 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

stood, or ratlier, that we no longer had any standing, or any 
rights whatever. Before, the course of things had been fitful 
— now, there was the steadiness of death ; Virginia was 
civil iter mortuus. 

Our real masters were, successively, Generals Schofield, 
Stoneman and Canby — commanding District No. 1.* The 
two first were soldiers and gentlemen who simply admin- 
istered faithfully, yet intelligently and fairly, the absolute 
despotism of reconstruction. General Schofield was moreov^er 
a ma-n of extraordinary ability. Canby released his grip, on 
the 27th of January, 1870, the day after the bill readmitting 
Virginia to representation in Congress was passed. 

Meanwhile, the so-called "Governors of Virginia'' were 
Francis H. Pierpoint, up to April 4th, 1868; then H. IT. 
Wells, a gentleman from abroad and a military appointee, 
who, after the election of Gilbert C. Walker, in July, 18G9, 
realizing that the state no longer offered "great opportuni- 
ties" abdicated in Walker's favor, on September 21st, but 
the latter did not become the real Governor of the real Com- 
monwealth, until the 27th of January, 1870. 

SALIENT POINTS. 

1. The demonstration, by actual experiment, that it was 
impossible to maintain, or even to inaugurate, civil govern- 
ment in Virginia, under the disfranchisements and disqualifi- 
cations of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal consti- 
tution, the special legislation of Congress, or the proj)osed 
constitution of Virginia. 

Both Generals Schofield and Stoneman made repeated and 
earnest official reports and representations to the effect sub- 
stantially, that, for the vast majority of the offices, no legally 
qualified incumbents could be found in Virginia, and none 
could be imported for the salaries, who possessed sufficient 
intelligence to discharge the duties. General Schofield even 
went upon the floor of the Reconstruction Constitutional Con- 
vention, which had begun its sessions, on the 3rd of Decem- 

^ General Webb preceded and substituted Canby for a few days of 
April, 186t). 



RECONSTKUCTION IN VIEGINIA. 251 

ber, 1867, and presented these views as the result of his ex- 
perience in administering the affixirs of the district, earnestly 
advising and warning the convention against the contemplated 
disqualifying clauses and adding : '^ I have no hesitation in 
saying that I believe it impossible to inaugurate a government 
upon that basis/' But, of that body it might indeed be said : 
'^ neither will they be persuaded, though one should rise from 
the dead." 

On the 21st of March, 1869, General Stoneman reported 
to the Adjutant General, that there were 5446 offices in the 
state, of which 2504 had been filled by General Schofield and 
himself, and that of these incumbents only 329 could take 
the test-oath. That report contained this pregnant paragraph : 
*' The conclusion will force itself upon every intelligent mind, 
that if, with all the efforts that have been made and the lati- 
tude that has been allowed, the offices in the state have not 
been filled by competent persons, they certainly cannot be 
filled when the restrictions of any one party are to be ob- 
served and complied with, as will be the case upon the adop- 
tion of the proposed constitution, under which it is desired 
by some that the people of Virginia shall be forced to live, 
and to the requirements of which they are expected to con- 
sent/' 

2. During the season of comparative quiet after the 
adjournment of the convention in April, '68 — no arrange- 
ments having been made for putting its constitution to 
popular vote — the realization of what had been so irresistibly 
demonstrated was impressing itself more and more upon all 
thoughtful men. This realization, superadded to the rabid 
folly of the radical wing, displayed in resisting this demon- 
stration, and attempting to break its force by the publication 
of virulent libels against the people of the commonwealth 
generally, and every one who favored the emancipation of her 
intelligence and worth — gradually sifted out and separated 
the better class of republicans from the mass of the party in 
Virginia; so that, by the latter part of 1868, there had come 
to be a three-fold division of parties in the state. Radical 
Republicans, Conservative Republicans and Conservative 
Democrats — the two last-named being much nearer together 



252 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

than the two first. There may have been a few Radical Demo- 
crats also, but radical Democracy was out of fashion and out 
of heart. By the end of 1868, all men and all parties had clearly 
before them what impended, if the constitution framed by the 
convention should be adopted by the people without amendment. 

3. In the latter part of December, 1868, largely in conse- 
quence of the efforts of Hon. A. H. H. Stuart of Augusta 
County, a conference of prominent gentlemen of the state 
was held at Richmond, as the result of which a committee, 
commonly called *' The Committee of Nine," headed by Mr. 
Stuart, went to Washington in January, '69, and appeared 
before committees of both houses of Congress, urging that 
the disfranchising and disqualifying clauses, and also the 
county organization clause, of the proposed constitution 
should be put to separate popular vote. Committees of both 
wings of the Republican party were also in attendance, and 
the scale was probably turned when the Conservative Repub- 
lican committee, which had theretofore been as Mr. Stuart 
says, a sort of '^ committee of observation,'' joined earnestly 
with the Democratic committee in demanding the enfran- 

chisino; of the intelhVence and character of the state. 

• -I 
General Grant, then President-elect, was also interviewed, 

and one of his first acts as President was to recommend to 
Congress to allow a separate vote upon the disfranchising 
and disqualifving clauses. He did not make the recommen- 
dation as to the county organization clause, because of differ- 
ence of opinion in his Cabinet as to the probable effect of the 
striking out of this clause upon the proposed public school 
system of the state.* 

4. As a result. Congress passed the act as recommended by 
the President — the regular Democratic state ticket of Vir- 
ginia previously nominated in May, 1868, was withdrawn, 
the Democrats or '' Conservative Party," as they had now 
christened themselves, supporting the ticket nominated by the 
conservative Republicans — the election was held in July, 
1869 — the disfranchising and disqualifying clauses were 

* Mr. Stuart's pamphlet entitled, '' A Narrative of the First Popular 
Movement in Virginia," in 1865, and of the " Committee of Nine," in 
1869. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN VIRGINIA. 253 

stricken out, the constitution thus expurgated was adopted — 
Gilbert C. Walker was elected governor — and the old com- 
monwealth was redeemed and restored. 

January 26th, 1870, against the protest and opposition of 
the Radical party of the state, an act was passed readmitting 
Virginia to representation in Congress, and the nightmare of 
Eeconstruction became — God grant that it may ever remain 
to the people of this country — a thing of the past. 

It is a pleasure, in closing, to record the grateful obligations 
of Virginia to Generals Schofield, Stoneman and Grant for 
the manly and generous parts taken by them respectively in 
the diseuthrallment of the state. Only the inexorable demands 
of history have induced us to record obligations to others of 
a less pleasant nature. But for these demands, it would be as 
agreeable to Virginians to forget the latter obligations as to 
cherish the former. 

YI. 

THE COXSTITUTIOXAli QUESTION. 

1st. In the division of Virginia and admission of West 
Virginia. 

It is undoubtedly the general popular impression, shared in 
some degree even by the bar of the country, that, in the case 
of Virginia vs. West Virginia, 11 Wal. 39, the Supreme Court 
condoned and validated this entire transaction. The impres- 
sion is groundless, as a moment's reflection will show. 

In the first place, as a matter of fact, the bill of Virginia 
conceded the existence of West Virginia as a sovereign state 
of the American Union. The very name and style of the cause 
shows this. Indeed, the section of the constitution upon 
which alone the question as to existence and admission of 
West Virginia could be raised, was not so much as once re- 
ferred to, either by court or counsel, so far as the reported 
case shows. The only question raised in the suit was as to 
the validity of the transfer of Berkeley and Jefferson counties, 
contested upon the grounds of invalidity of the popular elec- 
tion upon the question of annexation, mistake of fact, and 
withdrawal of consent. All else was conceded. 



254 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

But, in the second place, as a matter of law, the concession 
of West Virginia's legal existence as a state was a necessary 
condition precedent to the bringing of the suit; the Supreme 
Court could not have entertained the suit without it. 

Flrstj because it would not otherwise have had jurisdiction 
o^the parties. That court may entertain suits against " states/' 
actual states, not bogus or pretended states. 

Second, because it could not take jurisdiction at all of the 
question whether or not West Virginia was a lawful and ex- 
isting state of the Union. 

It is settled, in a line of well considered cases that, questions 
such as the admission of new states, the determination and 
recognition of the lawful government in a state, etc., etc., are 
"political questions," and exclusively within the province of 
"the political department" /. e., the legislature, the Congress, 
(in some cases the executive also); and that the determination 
of these questions by the political department is not review- 
able by the judicial department. Says Mr. Hare, in his work 
on American Constitutional Law> vol. 1, page 124 : "That 
such questions are purely political, and do not belong to the 
province of the judiciary, sufficiently appears from the case 
of Luther vs. Borden, 7 Howard 1." Th.e case cited by ]\Ir. 
Hare, is the leading case, but there are others. For an excel- 
lent statement of the position and some strong reasons in sup- 
port of it, see Scott vs. Jones, 5 How^ard, IMI-H. 

All this is undeniable, but one inference from it must not 
be overlooked. The action of the political department upon 
such questions being final, and not reviewable by the courts, 
of course the courts cannot and do not say whether, in their 
opinion, in any given case of this class, C-ongress has or has 
not violated the constitution. The Attorney- General occu- 
pies a peculiar and a very different position in the Govern- 
ment. In some respects related to the judicial, he is more 
closely connected with the political department. It is his 
special province and duty to advise the executive, as to the 
legal phase of political questions. Accordingly, Mr. Lincoln 
consulted Attorney-General Bates when, in December, 1862, 
the bill admitting West Virginia, passed by both houses, 
came into his hands for approval ; although, for reasons best 



EECONSTKUCTION IN VIRGIXIA. 255 

known to himself, he did not follow his opinion. Possibly 
the political considerations, as sometimes happens, ontweighed 
the legal. But the people of the United States might do well 
to examine Mr. Bates' opinion. It may be found in Vol. X. 
of Attorney-GeneraPs Opinions, page 426, etc. It is thus 
epitomized by himself: ''I am of opinion that the bill is 
not warranted by the constitution.^' 

The syllabus is too long to print, and, in order that our 
synopsis of the opinion may be better comprehended, we here 
insert Section 3, of Article IV., of the United States Consti- 
tution, which is the provision involved. 

'^New States may be admitted by the Congress into this 
Union ; bat no new State shall be formed or erected within the 
jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed 
by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States 
without the consent of the Legislatures of the States con- 
cerned, as well as of the Congress.'' 

The synopsis of Attorney-General Bates' opinion is as fol- 
lows : Congress can admit only existing states; West Vir- 
ginia did not exist till Congress admitted her. 

The letter of the constitution either prohibits the formation 
of a state within the territory of another state, or else per- 
mits it with the consent of the legislatures of both the states 
concerned. Upon either construction, the admission of West 
Virginia violates the letter. 

Even if the consent of the legislature of the parent state 
alone were sufficient, yet the spirit and sense, at least, require 
the consent of a legislature really representing the entire 
state, and not, as in this case, only that jxirt which is to form 
the new state. 

The question Mr. Bates raises, as to whether the constitu- 
tion absolutely prohibits the formation of a new state within 
the jurisdiction of another state, or permits it with the con- 
sent of both the states concerned, is in some degree a question 
of punctuation. The section is punctuated above, as it is in 
most copies of the constitution, as it is in Mr. Madison's 
notes, and in his papers in the Federalist, i. e., with a semi-co- 
Ion instead of a comma, after the words, "jurisdiction of any 
other State." The bearing of this is obvious. 



256 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Those who care to look into the probal)le origin of this 
provision will be interested in the examination and compar- 
ison of 11 Heming's Statutes-at-Large, pages 569-70 and 
326, referring to Virginia's cession of the northwest terri- 
tory and the conditions she proposed — with two of Mr. Mad- 
ison's papers in the Federalist, No. 38, page 299, and No. 43, 
pages 340-41. Our idea is that Section 3d of Article 4th is 
the guarantee Virginia demanded, though in another form. 
We think, that is, that the old guarantee demanded by Vir- 
ginia, is the origin of the clause of the ])resent constitution 
which Attorney-General Bates' opinion discusses. 

2d. In the Reconstruction Acts. 

The right to pass these statutes was claimed by Congress 
under what is termed " the guarantee clause '' of the consti- 
tution, being Section 4th of Article 4th, which is in these 
words : "The United States shall guarantee to every State in 
this Union a republican Form of government, and shall pro- 
tect each of them against invasion ; and, on a})plication of 
the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature 
cannot be convened), against domestic violence." 

The position and principle are precisely the same as above. 
The question is di political owe, and within the exclusive pro- 
vince of the political department. We will not go into the 
history of the efforts made to have the constitutionality of 
these laws tested. Any one who».is interested can examine 
the cases for himself. The most important are State of Mis- 
sissippi vs. Johnson, 4 Wal., 475 ; ex parte McCardle, 7 Wal., 
506 ; and Texas vs. Wlute, 7 Wal., 700. The McCardle 
case was nev^r decided upon its merits, because, after it was 
argued and submitted, Congress took away the jurisdiction of 
the court. Some authorities regard Texas vs. White as set- 
tling th'C constitutionality of the acts. We do not regard it 
as departing at all from the principle of Luther vs. Borden, 
which it quotes with approval. 

Our purpose is not in any manner to suggest the raising of 
any of these questions in the future. We regard them as 
settled, upon the distinct and conclusive ground that the 
courts cannot entertain jurisdiction of them. But^ for this 



RECONSTEUCTIOX IN VIRGINIA. 257 

very reason, because the courts never have reviewed and 
never can review the action of Congress in either of the 
momentous matters herein discussed, we deem it well the 
American people should for themselves examine the constitu- 
tional provisions involved, and the action of Congress in the 
premises, and pass their own judgment. We are happy, that, 
as to one of these questions, they may be aided, if not guided 
by the opinion of the legal adviser of President Lincoln's 
Cabinet. 

Egbert Stiles. 



CHAPTER IX. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 

THE history of the state of West Virginia during the re- 
construction period does not differ greatly from that of 
the other border states. . There was the same display of 
revengeful legislation, the same struggle of a minority to retain 
political power, that marked the transition between war and 
peace in Maryland, Missouri and elsewhere. The State 
Government being entirely in the control of the Republican 
party, and a full delegation of Republicans being })resent in • 
both Houses of Congress, West Virginia was ex' mpted from 
the operation of the reconstruction laws, and her people were 
left to deal with the problem of pacification in their own way, 
without interference by the Federal authorities and without 
much assistance from the tribe of carpet-baggers. The native 
Republicans were numerous enough to hold all the offices of 
value, and they were naturally averse to sharing the feast with 
strangers who came in after the fray. Hence the adventurers 
from Northern States, who played so conspicuous parts in the 
South in the years immediately succeeding the civil Avar, did 
not find a congenial field of operations in West Virginia and 
sought out otlier localities where the white Republicans were 
fewer and the negroes more numerous. 

At the beginning of the war there was a strong Union 
sentiment amt)ng the people of the counties of Virginia now 
composing the state of West Virginia. There was a decided 
majority against the ordinance of secession ; but after the war 
had actually begun, and the state of Virginia became the 
scene of conflict, very many of those who had voted against 
secession either enrolled themselves in the Confederate army 
or remained at home in either active or tacit sympathy with 
258 



KECONSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 259 

the Confederate cause^ so that in 1863 when the new state 
was formed, a large majority of the legal inhabitants of the 
counties embraced within its limits took no part in the trans- 
action. Out of a voting population in 1860 of more than 
50,000, the state of West Virginia started upon its career 
with the expressed consent and approbatiou of less than 19,- 
000 votes. The Uuion sentiment was strongest in the coun- 
ties lying along the Northern and Western borders, or along 
the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ; it was weaker 
in the interior counties; while in the counties upon the 
Southern and Eastern borders it was almost non-existent, the 
people being practically unanimous in support of the South- 
ern cause. According to the reports of the Adjutant-General, 
the state of West Virginia was credited with furnishing to 
the Union army, from first to last, a total of 31,884 men. 
Several entire regiments which are credited to West Virginia, 
were recruited in Ohio or elsewhere, and officered by Ohio 
men. During the last two years of the war^ when large 
bounties w^ere paid for enlistments to complete the quota of 
troops called for, the volunteers came almost entirely from 
abroad, and when substitutes were secured to take the places 
of conscripted men, these substitutes were for the most part 
obtained in Northern cities or were newly-arrived immigrants 
from abroad. It is now impossible to obtain any accurate 
fio;ures as to the number of soldiers furnished to the Southern 
armies by the counties composing West Virginia. The mus- 
ter-rolls hav^e been lost or destroyed, and it is not known that 
any record even approaching completeness is now in existence. 
Recruiting was active in many of the counties at the begin- 
ning of the war ; but when the Federal armies advanced in 
1861, of course enlistment in the Confederate army ceased at 
all points within the Federal line, though it went on with 
increased activity and thoroughness in the counties not under 
Federal control, and it can scarcely be doubted that the total 
number of West Virginians who served at one time or an- 
other in the Confederate army exceeded by several thousands 
the number who espoused the Union cause. 

These facts are mentioned here simply for the purpose of 
affording some clue to the relative strength of the parties 



260 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

when the war closed and the era of reconstriiotion "began. 
The returns of elections held at various times during the con- 
tinuance of the war afford no trustworthy indication of pop- 
ular sentiment. They are significantly one-sided, and siiow 
only that the people opposed to the party in power did not 
vote; not that they did not exist. The Constitution of ]863, 
and the officers elected under it, all derived their authority 
from a minority composed of scarcely more than one-third of 
the people of the state. 

The Constitution of 1863 was, in the main, a fair, prudent 
and equitable instrument. True, it was afterwards warped 
by construction so as to tolerate the most proscriptive and 
unjust enactments, but that was the fault of the Legishiture 
and the courts ; the Constitution was right, but the courts 
were wrong. The Constitutional provision as to the elective 
franchise was contained in Section 1 of Article III. in these 
words : 

"The white male citizens of the state shall be entitled to 
vote at all elections held within the election districts in which 
they respectively reside ; but no person who is a minor, or of 
unsound mind, or a pauper, or who is under conviction of 
treason, felony, or bribery in an election, or who has not been 
a resident of the state for one year, and of the county in 
which he offers to vote for thirty days next preceding such 
offer, shall be permitted to vote while such disability contin- 
ues.'^ 

The Constitution declared in Section 6 of Article I., tliat, 
'* The citizens of the state are the citizens of the United 
States residing therein." 

These provisions are in the main similar to those relating 
to the SI me subject in the Constitution of Virginia and of 
other states, and the restrictions upon the suffrage are only 
those which are usually imposed. They are ])rospective in 
effect and attach to no crime a punishment which had not 
been ordained before the offence was committed, and the disa- 
bility to vote is made contingent upon conviction of the 
crime. 

The first Legislature held under the new Constitution 
adopted a number of '' war measures," such as acts for the 



KECONSTEUCTION IN WEST VIEGIXIA. 261 

forfeiture of the property of persons engaged in rebellion, 
and various other sanguinary resolutions, but it did not 
attempt to restrict the suiFrage further than is provided in the 
section of the Constitution quoted above. The general 
election law passed at this session provided that, 

" The supervisor and inspectors at every election shall 
permit all persons to vote who are residents of their town- 
ship and qualified to vote according to the first section of the 
third article of the Constitution/^ 

If a voter were challenged, he might be required to take 
an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and 
the Constitution of the state of West Virginia — only this 
and nothing more — and this oath alone was to be exacted 
from officers of the state. But at the same session — that of 
1863 — the Legislature seriously damaged the Constitution 
which the members had so recently and enthusiastically 
adopted and sworn to support, by enacting a law in the fol- 
low^pg terms : 

" Every person elected or appointed to any office of trust, 
civil or military, shall, before proceeding to exercise the 
authority or discharge the duties of the same, take the fol- 
lowing oath : I, A. B., do solemnly swear that I will support 
the Constitution of the United States and the Constitu- 
tion of this state ; that I have never voluntarily borne 
arms against the United States; that I have voluntarily 
given no aid or comfort to persons engaged in armed hostility 
thereto, by countenancing, counseling or encouraging them in 
the same ; that I have not sought, accepted, nor attempted to 
exercise the functions of any office whatever, under any 
authority in hostility to the United States ; that I have not 
yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, 
authority, power or Constitution within the United States 
hostile or inimical thereto; and that I take this obligation 
freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.'' 

This is the first appearance of the famous test -oath upon the 
statute books of West Virginia. It appeared a great many times 
afterwards : sometimes with additional clauses or with care- 
fully drawn limitations; but always in its main features it 
w^as the same. Having set it out in full here, it will be here- 



262 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

after referred to simply as "the test-oath '^ and will not be 
again presented in its entirety. 

Ao the election held in the fall of 1864 there was very- 
little opposition to the Republican candidates. A McClellan 
electoral ticket was put in the field a few weeks before the 
election, but it was voted for in only a few of the counties, 
and Mr. Lincoln, carried the state, receiving 23,233 votes as 
against 10,437 votes cast for tlic Democratic candidate. There 
was no opposition to the Republican ticket for -state officers. 
But the vote cast for McClellan, small as it was, seems to 
have alarmed the Republican politicMuns. The war was 
nearly over and it was apparent to all that the unequal com- 
bat must soon end in the triumph of the Federal arms. 
Already the Confederate armies were rapidly disintegrating. 
The rebels were coming home ; not in battalions, nor even by 
squads; but singly and quietly they were seeking to rebuild 
their desolate homes and take their places in the ranks of 
peaceful avocation. There was nothing in the Constitution 
or laws of the state that could ])rohibit them from voting. 
There was danger that the will of the majority might be ex- 
pressed at the polls ; that the i)eople, who are the source of 
all lawful authority in a government republican in form, 
might come to claim their own. 

In this emergency the Legislature, on the 25th of Febru- 
ary, 1865, proceeded to amend the election law which had 
been adopted in November, 1863, by providing that if the 
right of any voter were challenged at the polls, he should 
not be allowed to vote until he produced an affidavit, duly 
sworn to before and attested by a notary or other officer 
authorized to administer an oath, in which the unlucky 
citizen was required to swear that he had never voluntarily 
borne arms against the United States, " the reorganized gov- 
ernment of Virginia/^ or the state of West Virginia, etc., 
etc., after the style of the test-oath for officers set forth above. 
Just why the voter was required to purge himself of any 
past hostility to the reorganized government of Virginia seems 
rather difficult to understand at this distance of time. The 
government of Virginia was reorganized at Wheeling for 
the purpose of giving its consent to the formation of the new 



EECONSTRUCTIOX IN WEST VIEGINIA. 263 

state, and thus technically complying with one of the require- 
ments of the Federal Constitution, and when that consent was 
given, the reorganized government took itself away to Alexan- 
dria and concerned thfe people of the state no more. Whether 
any human being ever bore arms against the reorganized 
government of Virginia who did not at the same time bear 
arms against the United States, to say nothing of the state of 
AVest Virginia, would have puzzled even the framers of the 
law to find out. But the phrase has a solemn jingle and 
hence was repeated in full in every clause of the oath. 

It was immediately pointed out and contended by those 
who had regard for popular rights that the amendment to the 
election law was plainly and flagrantly in violation of the 
Constitution ; that the Legislature had no power to pass such 
an act; and that the members who voted for it had deliber- 
ately and with full knowledge violated their oaths. In reply, 
the Republican members said, in effect. We know it is uncon- 
stitutional, but we mean to amend the Constitution itself in 
conformity with the act, and in the mean time we will enforce 
the amended law. Accordingly, on the 1st of March, 1865, 
the following amendment was proposed, to be added to the 
first section of Article III. : — 

*'No person who, since the first day of June, 1861, has 
giv^en, or shall give voluntary aid or assistance to the rebellion 
against the United States shall be a citizen of this state or be 
allowed to vote at any election held therein, unless he has 
volunteered into the military or naval service of the United 
States, and has been, or shall be, honorably discharged there- 
from.^^ 

The mode of amendment fixed by the Constitution required 
the proposition to be agreed to by a majority of each house 
of the Legislature ; published in each county for three months 
before the next general election ; agreed to a second time by 
both houses of the Legislature, and then submitted to a vote 
of the people, and if a majority of the qualified voters voting 
upon the question ratified the proposed amendment it became 
of force '''from the time of such i^atlfication, as a part of the 
Constitution of the state.'^ 

The Legislature elected in the fall of 1865, by excluding 



264 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH?] 

the votes of those who could only be lawfully excluded from 
the ballot after the proposed change had been made in the 
Constitution, met in January, 1806, and, on the 13th of Feb- 
ruary assented the second time to tlie proposed amendment, 
and provided for submitting it to a vote of the people at the 
election to be held for school and township officers on the 
24th of the following ^lay. 

But the Legislature of 1866 went much further than any 
of its predecessors in the destruction of popular rights; in 
the establishment of an oligarchy ; in the erection of a privi- 
leged class, in whom alone the j)ower of government sliould 
reside. Fearful lest the election officers should fail to enforce 
the confessedly unconstitutional act of 1865 relating to elec- 
tions by the people, they vested in the hands of the Governor 
of the state the right of the people to vote and enabled him 
to control the franchise. They went about it in this way : 
An act was passed for the registration of voters ; a board of 
registration was to be appointed by the Governor in each 
county, consisting of three persons "from among the citizens 
most known for loyalty, firmness and uprightness;'' the board 
was to appoint a registrar in each township, whose duty it 
was to place upon the roll of voters only those citizens who 
could take the test-oath. The township registrar was remov- 
able by the board of registration, and the board of registra- 
tion was removable by the Gov^ernor. It was thus possible 
for the Governor to supervise the rights of every citizen, from 
the highest to the lowest. If a registrar was found to have 
scruples as to the exclusion of his neighbors from the polls, 
he was prom])tly removed and a more serviceable man ap- 
pointed by the board of registration, and if the board became 
frightened by the prospect of being called upon to defend 
suits at law, the Governor could always be relied upon to re- 
move any man who hesitated to do the work assigned to him. 
In fact, the whole machinery of registration was practically 
subject to the absolute and arbitrary will of the Governor; 
and when it is known that by subsequent enactments nearly 
all of the civil rights of the people were made dependent 
upon the registration ; that the man who was not a regis- 
tered voter was practically under sentence of outlawry ; 



EECONSTRUCTIO:^ 1]S WEST VIRGINIA. 265 

some idea of the vast power given to the Governor may be 
conceived. 

Daring the year 1865, there had been much discussion in 
the newspapers and at public meetings as to the duty of elec- 
tion officers. It had been insisted that the amendment to the 
general election law could not be regarded as valid and that 
whoever enforced it or acted under it did so at his own peril. 
The supervisors and inspectors were threatened with suits for 
damages if they refused the ballot of any voter who possessed 
the constitutional qualifications. It was contended that a 
void act was void from the beginning and never could have 
any validity whatever, and therefore it could not protect th6 
officer who enforced it. But in order to stiffen and encourage 
the officers, the Legislature provided that all suits brought 
ag^ainst them for acts done in obedience to the unconstitutional 
law should be defended at public expense, and on the 17th of 
February, 1866, an act was passed " to prevent and punish 
the forcible or unlawful obstruction of public justice,'^ by 
which it was provided that " no officer in the lawful discharge 
of his official duty under any act of the Legislature, or any 
order or proclamation of the Governor of this state shall be 
deemed personally responsible therefor (either civilly or crimi- 
nally) by reason of such act, order or proclamation being 
afterwards adjudged by any Court of this state to be uncon- 
stitutional and void." 

The same Legislature required all the supervisors and In- 
spectors of election to take the test oath before entering upon 
the discharge of their duty, and provided that '^ in no case shall 
the votes taken at any place of voting be counted unless said 
oath so appear on the poll books." 

Having thus arranged the election law so as to enforce be- 
fore ratification the constitutional amendment which they 
wished to adopt, the Legislature proceeded to punish the 
members of the bar who had dared to call in question the 
validity of their acts, and on the 14th of February, 1866, 
it was enacted that no attorney-at-law should be allowed to 
practice in any court, or before any justice or board of su{>er- 
visors until he had taken a test-oath that he had not 
"since the twentieth day of June, 1863" borne arms against 



2G6 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the United States, etc. The date inserted in the oath was 
thB date of the formation of the state of West Virginia, 
bnt why attorneys were limited to tliat date while voters 
were required to swear that they had not been en<!:aged in 
hostility since the first day of June, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-one, and officers were compelled to declare that they 
had never borne arms against the United States, does not 
clearly ap])ear. The attorney's test-oath inflicted a great 
hardship upon a large class of citizens, and produced much 
unhappiness and discontent. It was frequently brought into 
question before the courts, as will be mentioned hereafter. 
Prior to the election of school and township olficers, held 
on the 24th of May, 1866, there was an active and excit- 
ing canvass. The war was over, hostilities having entirely 
and forever ceased during the preceding summer. The Con- 
federate armies had been disbanded, but the fury of the 
Republican politicians seemed to gather strength from the ab- 
sence of physical danger. The Boards of Registration were 
appointed ; township registrars were designated, and the 
work of disfranchisement was formally begun. Not content 
with excluding all who were not willing to take the test- 
oath, the registrars doubted the loyalty of nearly every 
citizen who was known lo be opposed to the arbitrary 
measures adopted by the Legislature, and assumed the right 
to refuse to register many who produced before them the 
affidavit required by the law. An appeal to the Board of 
Registration was permitted to any person aggrieved by the 
action of a township registrar, but iq most cases the appeal 
w^as but a prolongation of the farce. The Boards of Re- 
gistration and the registrars were all of the same party, 
and it was found difficult to procure in many of the counties 
respectable citizens who would consent to engage in the 
odious task ; but where men of honor and high standing 
cou-ld not be found, the Governor was content to entrust 
the administration of the law to persons less scrupulous, 
and so the work was done. When the vote upon the pro- 
posed constitutional amendment had been cast and counted, 
it was declared that 22,224 votes had been given for ratifi- 
cation, and 15,302 far rejection, and that the amendment 



KECONSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 267 

was therefore ratified and in full force as a part of tlie Con- 
stitution of the state. If the law under which the amend- 
ment was submitted was constitutional, there was no neces- 
sity for the amendment; if the election law was unconsti- 
tutional and void, then the amendment had not been legally 
ratified. 

The party in power now felt that it had gained a new lease 
of existence and that the way was open for the adoption of 
any further proscriptive measures which might be deemed 
desirable, while the opponents of proscription saw in the large 
vote which, in the face of many obstacles, had been cast for 
rejection of the amendment the nucleus of a party which they 
felt sure would grow. At the state election in the Fall of 

1866, the Republican ticket received 23,509 votes as against 
16,791 for the opposition. 

The Legislature which assembled in January, 1867, was, as 
might have been expected, more bitter and vindictive than 
any of its predecessors. An act passed February 19, 1867, 
required all jurors empannelled for the trial of cases, civil or 
criminal, to be registered voters. An act passed February 27, 

1867, provided that no person, male or female, could be em- 
ployed as a teacher in any of the public schools until he or 
she had taken the test-oath. Another illustration of the blind 
rage of this Legislature is found in a solemnly enacted law that 
no Virginian should be permitted to collect a debt due to him 
from any citizen of this state : the benefits of the act, how- 
ever, were to accrue only to the loyal people and any person who 
coukl not take the test-oath might be sued by a citizen of 
Virginia in the old-fashioned wayc 

On the 25th of February, 1867, a new act was passed for the 
registration of voters and the former one was repealed. This 
may have beertdone through some apprehension lest the act of 
1866 might be set aside because of its having been passed be- 
fore the ratification of the amendment to the Constitution. 
The new law was more stringent in its obnoxious features 
than the old one had been. If the registrar *' doubted the 
loyalty " of any applicant for registration, he required him to 
take the test-oath ; but this was not to be considered conclu- 
sive. The applicant was required to ''make it appear that 



268 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

he is (was) a qualified voter," but if he failed so to make it 
appear, his application was rejected. He might then apj)eal 
to the board and try to ^' make it appear " that he was entitled 
to registration, but such appeals were usually in vain. The 
members of the board might also, upon their own motion, 
strike off the name of any registered voter whom they might 
think not entitled to vote — a power which they exercised freely 
and without scruple. The citizen who was summoned to 
show cause why his name should not be stricken from the list 
of registered voters might as well abandon hope at once. 
How could he make his right appear '^ to the satisfaction of '^ 
a tribunal by which he was condemned already? If the 
board of registration said " we doubt your loyalty,'' of what 
avail was the testimony of witnesses on behalf of the accused ? 
In some instances honorably discharged soldiers of the Union 
army were disfranchised because they voted against the 
faction in power, and the boards of registration therefore 
*' doubted their loyalty." It was a matter of party necessity 
to keep down the growing strength of the opposition, and 
behind the registrars and boards of registration, goading them 
ou in the work of disfranchisement, loomed the awful form 
of the Governor who was either a candidate for re-election or 
for a seat in the Senate of the United States. 

The Legislature of 1867 left but little in the way of pro- 
scription and intolerance to be enacted by its successor in 1868. 
But on the 2nd of March, in the latter year, it was enacted 
that no interest upon any debt contracted prior to the 1st day 
of April, 1865, should be recoverable in any action for the 
time durintr which the creditor had been within the Confcd- 
erate lines. It was also enacted that no suit or action, civil 
or criminal, should be maintained against any person " for 
any act done in the suppression of the late rebellion." The 
registration law was amended so as to provide for the punish- 
ment of boards of registration who had stricken oif names 
improperly; an abuse of power which had become so serious 
and so flagrant as to alarm even a Republican Legislature. 
A joint resolution was passed declaring that *^\ndrew John- 
son, President of the United States, in the attempted removal 
of the Secretary of War, and the designation of the Adjutant 



EECONSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 269 

General to perform the duties of the office ad interim^ the 
Senate being in session^ has been guilty of a wilful and fla- 
grant violation of law, and in the opinion of the Legislature 
of West Virginia, ought to be impeached for high crimes and 
misdemeanors." The Governor was authorized to tender to 
Congress the assistance of West Virginia in sustaining the 
authority and enforcing the laws of the United States. 

A special session of the Legislature was held commencing 
in June, 1868, and continuing during the remainder of the 
year. The chief business transacted was the adoption of a 
code which gathered into a compact and convenient form the 
scattered enactments of the past five years. Very little politi- 
cal legislation was attempted. The registration act was further 
amended so as to provide that no person whose name had 
been stricken from the list by the board of registration could 
afterwards be registered, except by consent of the board. A 
number of special acts were passed permitting attorneys to 
practice law without taking the test-oath ; and one was passed 
to permit a young lady to teach school without taking the 
oath, but in this case the Legislature cautiously and prudently 
reserved the right to alter or repeal the act whenever in their 
discretion they might think proper to do so — evidently in- 
tending to recall the magnanimous act if the young lady 
should dare to engage a second time in armed rebellion 
against 'Uhe reorganized government of Virginia,'' &c. 

At the state election held in the fall of 1868, there were 
26,885 Republican votes, as against 21,698 conservative and 
Democratic. 

In 1869 a number of acts for the relief of attorneys were 
passed, and on the 7th of February, 1870, the act requiring 
attorneys to take the test-oath was formally and finally 
repealed. The Legislature in 1870, also repealed the act 
which required the petitioner for a rehearing to take the test- 
oath when decree had been rendered against him in his 
absence and w^ithout personal service of process. The same 
Legislature proposed what was afterwards known as ^' the 
Flick Amendment," from the name of its patron, restoring 
the constitutional provision as to the qualifications of voters 
to the terms originally embodied in Section 1, Article 3, of 



270 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

the Constitution of 1863, omitting the word '^ white." This 
was the last Legislature in which the Republican party had a 
majority, for, at the election held in October, 1870, the Demo- 
cratic and Conservative party carried the state casting 28,020 
votes as against 20,475 given for the Republican nominees. It 
Avill be observed that the Republican vote was only 410 less 
than that in 1868, which was the highest point it had ever 
reached. It was larger than that of 1864 or 1866, the period 
during which all of the odious and oppressive legislation had 
been had; the period during which an aggressive and un- 
scrupulous minority of the people of the state had been 
enabled to rule the majority with an iron hand. 

From first to last there was expended for the expenses of 
the regfstration of voters and for the defense of suits instituted 
against registrars and boards of registration the sum of $53,- 
200, not including the sums expended from the Governor's 
contingent fund the items of which were not made ]niblic. 
Nor does this total include $500, which was paid to William 
Ware Peck, a lawyer who was imported from somewhere in 
New York, to assist the Attorney-General in excluding 
native attorneys from practicing their profession. 

The acts of the Legislatures in West Virginia, to which 
attention has been directed in the preceding pages, were 
mainly those relating to the right to vote, but tlie acts affect- 
ing the property rights of the ex-confederates w^ere, periiaps, 
more severely felt. In accordance with the terms of an act 
passed February 28th, 1865, no person could bring suit or 
obtain process in any court without being required to take the 
test-oath if it was demanded by the defendant. Tliis com- 
pletely closed the courts against any Southern soldier who 
sought redress for injuries or for the collection of a just and 
valid debt. During the later years of the war, a great many 
suits had been instituted against persons who were within the 
lines of the Confederate army. Proceedings were had by 
order of publication and when the defendants failed to appear 
attachment was issued and property was seized. As the gen- 
eral law relating to attachments and suits against non-residents 
then stood, the party against whom these summary proceed- 
ings were had might come into court at any time within five 



EECOXSTKUCTIOX IN WEST VIEGINIA. 271 

years and file his petition asking that the judgment, order or 
decree obtained by deiault of appearance might be set aside and 
a hearing had as to the matters in controversy. But to the 
ill-starred ex-confederate was conceded no such right. Only 
the man who could take the test-oath was permitted to have 
his case reheard. Thus the soldier who came back, after the 
surrendei at Appomattox, and found his property in the hands 
of strangers, could not only not sue, he could not make de- 
fense to the action which had been brought against him in his 
absence and without his knowledge. But this was not all. 
If any property remained to him, he became a target for 
what were known as "war trespass suits,'' and judgments were 
piled up against him, as fast as courts could render them, at 
the demand of importunate suitors. If, during a raid of 
Confederate soldiers within the borders of West Virginia, 
while the war was in progress, the cattle or horses or goods 
of any loyal citizen were seized for the use of the army, and 
consumed or carried away, the person so injured brought a 
*Svar trespass suit" against any ex-rebel he could find who 
had any property left. It was not at all necessary that the 
defendant should have been one of the company or squad who 
captured the goods ; it was not necessary that he should have 
been present in any capacity at the time when and place where 
the offense was committed; it was not necessary that he should 
have been in the confederate service at all ; judgment was in- 
variably rendered against him for whatever amount a "loyal" 
jury might assess. For the greater convenience of plaintiffs 
and for the greater certainty of obtaining judgment in cases 
of this kind, it was provided that suits for causes of action 
arising in certain counties where Southern sentiment prevailed 
might be brought in other counties where popular opinion 
against injustice was not so strong. As has been already 
stated, no person could sit on a jury without having taken the 
test-oath, but it was feared that juries might be overawed or 
influenced by the indignation of their neighbors, and hence 
the trespass suits were generally brought remote from the 
home of the defendant, in some county where the Republi- 
cans were aggressive and had full control, and were still car- 
rying on the w^ar. 



272 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The condition of the ex-Confederate soldier in West Vir- 
ginia during the five years which immediately followed the 
end of the war, was, therefore, reduced to this : He was de- 
nied citizenship in the place of his birth ; he could not hold 
office; he could not vote; he could not practice law; he could 
not sit as a juror ; he could not teach school ; he could not sue 
in the courts ; he could not make defense to suits brought 
against him in his absence, and at least one of the circuit 
judges held that he could not qualify as an executor or ad- 
ministrator, and hence when he died he must commit to a 
Republican neighbor for distribution, whatever estate he had 
been able to save from the rapacity of those who had sued 
him for offenses for which he was not guilty. 

But the student of these legislative acts may w^ell inquire: 
Where were the courts during all this period and why were 
they not invoked to pi'otect the ])eo[)le ? The answer is found 
in the first five volumes of West Virginia Reports. The 
courts went hand in hand with the Legislature; whatever 
one did the other pronounced good. There is not a single 
instance during all the period between 18G3 and 1870 in 
wdiich an act or a section of an act, passed by the Legislature, 
was pronounced unconstitutional .by the Supreme Court of 
Appeals. There were plenty of cases ; the power of the 
court W' as very frequently invoked; but no ex-Confederate 
was ever relieved from the unjust judgment which had been 
rendered against him in the inferior tribunals. The Circuit 
Courts were completely under the control of the Legislature. 
One circuit judge was impeached and removed from office be- 
cause he had appointed an ex-Confederate to be the temporary 
sheriff of one of the counties in his circuit ; another w^as im- 
peached and removed because he had permitted three distin- 
guished lawyers to practice in his courts without taking the 
Attorney's test-oath. Other judges took wai'ning and treated 
the legislative body with marked deference. The several 
statutes imposing disabilities upon the returned Confederates 
were, one after the other, as they came under review by the 
Supreme Court of Appeals, sustained, and these decisions 
were many times repeated during the vears between 1866 
and 1871. 



EECONSTEUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 273 

In William Stratton's case, (1 W. Ya., 305), the court sus- 
tained the constitutionality of the test-oath for officers. 

In Lively vs, Ballard, (2 W. Va., 496), the court sustained 
the constitutionality of the test-oath for jurors. 

In Randolph vs. Good, (3 W. Ya., 551), the act of Febru- 
ary 25, 1865, requiring voters to take the test-oath, passed 
before the Constitution of 1863 had been amended, was de- 
clared constitutional by the court. 

In ex parte Hunter et al, {2 W. Va., 122), the court af- 
firmed the constitutionality of the test-oath for attorneys. 

In Higgiubotham vs. Haselden & Rohrbaugh, (3 W. Ya., 
17), the court sustained the validity of the test-oath for suitors, 
and extended its operation to the right of obtaining an appeal, 
writ of error or supersedeas. 

The decision by the Supreme Court of the United States 
in "The Prize Cases,'' at December term, 1862 (2 Black., 
635), was generally understood by the members of the legal 
profession as conceding to the armies of the Confederate 
States, "belligerent rights." This construction was amply 
sustained by many subsequent decisions of the Supreme 
Court, in which reference was made to the cases rcentioned. 
(97 U. S., 594,605 ; 100 U. S., 158 and cases cited.) It was 
a concession made necessary by the dictates of humanity and 
civilization in view of the magnitude of the war and its long 
duration. Under the doctrine of "belligerent rights," 
neither of the combatants can afterwards be held liable, 
either civilly or criminally, for any act done " in accordance 
w^ith the usages of civilized warfare.'' But the decisions of 
the Supreme Court in this regard were nullified in West Yir- 
ginia. Again and again was the plea of belligerent rights 
tendered in bar of the trespass suits which sprang up plenti- 
fully against the returned soldiers of the Southern cause, and 
as often was the plea overruled and the doctrine denied. The 
following are a few of the cases in which the Supreme Court 
of Appeals in West Yirginia reversed the Supreme Court of 
the United States upon this question alone : Hedges v. Price, 
2 W. Ya., 192 ; Cunningham v. Pitzer, Idem, 267 ; Lively Vo 
Ballard, Idem, 496; Echols v. Staunton, 3 W. Ya., 
574 ; Caperton v. Martin, 4 W. Ya., 138 ; French v, 

18 



274 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

White, Idem, 170; Caperton i\ Nickell, 7Ja?i, 173; Caperton 
V. Bowyer, Idem, 176; Carskadou v. Johnson, /Jem, 356 ; 
Caperton v, Ballard, Idem, 420. Commenting u])on some of 
these cases, the learned reporter of the American Decisions, 
Vol. 94, p. 325, remarks : '^ The court seems rather to have 
been actuated by a desire to exhibit its patriotism than 
to consider the question presented to it calmly and judiciously 
and to give its decision accordingly.'' 

In the case of Hood et al. v. Maxwell, (1 W. Va. 219) the 
owner of a mill in Barbour county sued Hood, who was a 
commissary of Virginia troops acting under the orders of 
Governor Letcher, ibr the value of a lot of flour taken for 
the use of the troops in 1861. The cause of action arose in 
Barbour county, but the case was tried in Marion county and 
a judgment was rendered for §1516.25. A writ of error was 
taken and the Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed the judg- 
ment in 1866. The sixth point in the syllabus is as follows : 
" No state in the Union has a constitutional right to secede 
from it.'' 

Ashby's cavalry came into the village of Hardscrabble in 
Berkeley county on the 10th of September, 1861. Henry 
Shepherd and John Shepherd were private citizens residing 
in the neighborhood and not in any manner engaged in the 
Confederate service. Ashby's men seized the goods in a 
store belonging to A. K. McQuilkin, and Abraham Shep- 
herd, one of the cavalrymen, gave to his father, Henry 
Shepherd, an umbrella taken from the store. Another of 
the soldiers gave to John Shepherd a straw hat. Suit was 
instituted against Henry Shepherd and John Shepherd and 
judgment obtained for §500, the value of all the goods taken, 
and this judgment was aflirmed by the Supreme Court of 
Appeals. 

John Cunningham was sued in the Circuit Court of Berkeley 
county by H. B. Pitzer, for taking and carrying away two 
hundred bushels of wheat belonging to the plaintiff. It 
was shown that the wheat was taken by the Confederate 
army, and threshed on Cunningham's machine, and that 
Cunningham was forced by the soldiers to assist in thresh- , 
ing the wheat. Judgment was rendered against Cunning- 



EECOXSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 275 

ham for §287, with interest from the 26th day of August, 
1864; and the judgment was affirmed. 

On the 24th of October, 1862, a man named Mace took 
from Maiden, in Kanawha county, thirty barrels of oil be- 
longing to J. G. & J. M. Staunton. Mace was acting under 
orders of E. McMahon, then acting as Chief Quartermaster 
of the Confederate army commanded by General W. W. 
Loring, and there w^as evidence tending to show that the 
oil was seized by order of Loring, issued while in com- 
mand. On the 15th of October, General Loring was re- 
lieved of command, and General John Echols was placed 
at the head of the army in the Kanawha valley. The oil 
was taken away and delivered to Thomas L. Broun, at 
Dublin Depot, for the use of the Confederate government, 
Broun being then a quartermaster in the Confederate army. 
In July, 1865, the Stauntons instituted suit in Kanawha 
county against John Echols for $1935, the value of the 
oil so taken and carried away. Judgment was rendered for 
$1935, and that judgment was affirmed by the Supreme 
Court of Appeals. 

On the 28th day of October, 1862, Nicholas Martin was 
arrested in Monroe county, by Confederate soldiers, and taken 
as a prisoner to Richmond. In June, J 866, Martin instituted 
suit for illegal arrest and false imprisonment against Allen T. 
Caperton who had been Provost Marslial of the Confederate 
forces in Monroe county at the time of the arrest. The de- 
fendant plead the statute of limitations in force in Virginia 
when the offense was committed, '^ belligerent rights," and a 
pardon of the President of the United States. The case was 
tried in November, 1867, and judgment was rendered against 
Caperton for $600, and this judgment was affirmed by the 
Supreme Court of Appeals, at the January term in 1870. 

On the 28th of November, 1864, General Rosser's brigade 
of Confederate soldiers took the town of New Creek, then a 
military post of the United States, fortified and garrisoned by 
about 1200 troops under command of Colonel Latham, most 
of whom were captured, although some fled and escaped. 
Among the prisoners taken was John R. Carskadon, a farmer 
living in the neighborhood, a Union man but not in the 



276 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

service. He was held as a hostage for James Parker, also a 
non-combatant, who had been arrested by United States 
soldiers some time before, and was then confined in the mili- 
tary prison at Wheeling. In 1865, Carskadon instituted suit 
for trespass, and assault and battery against George H. John- 
son, who was a private soldier in Kosser's command and one 
of the squad who made the arrest. Tiie Circuit Court sus- 
tained a demurrer to the evidence, but this decision was over- 
ruled by the Supreme Court of Appeals, in 1870, and judg- 
ment rendered against Johnson for §450. 

The foregoing are merely samples selected at random from 
the cases reported in the first five volumes of the West A^ir- 
ginia Reports. The appealed cases were not a tenth of the 
whole number of these trespass suits which were successfully 
prosecuted in the Circuit Courts. Nearly every ex-Confed- 
erate soldier was financially ruined by them, and even if he 
had no property out of which the judgment might be then 
satisfied, the -judgments stood upon the dockets as a lien 
against all that he might thereafter by diligence and economy 
acquire. 

Before dismissing this part of the subject, the professional 
reader may feel some interest in learning what became of 
these judgments obtained by ''war trespass suits," when the 
minority was hurled from power in W^est Virginia and the 
people assumed the right to govern themselves. Article VII. 
of the Constitution adopted in 1872, section 35, is in these 
words : 

"No citizen of this state who aided or participated in the 
late war between the government of the United States and a 
part of the people thereof, on either side, shall be liable in 
any proceeding, civil or criminal ; nor shall his property be 
seized or sold under final process issued upon judgments or 
decrees heretofore rendered, or otherwise, because of any act 
done in accordance with the usages of civilized warfare in the 
prosecution of said war by either of the parties thereto. The 
Legislature shall provide, by general laws, for giving full 
force and effect to this section by due process of law." 

The Legislature at the sessions of 1872-73, provided that 
upon the filing of a petition setting forth the fact thata judg- 



EECONSTRUCTION IN WEST YIEGINIA. 277 

ment or decree had been rendered against the petitioner for 
acts done in accordance with the usages of civilized warfare, 
such judgment or decree should be set aside and a new trial 
awarded, but the Supreme Court of Appeals in Peerce vs. 
Kitziniller (1 9 W. Va., 564), held that this mode of pro- 
cedure was not " due process of law,^' but it also held that 
the relief sought for might be obtained by a proceeding in 
chancery for an injunction against the execution of the original 
judgment and that this would be " due process of law." The 
mode of procedure thus indicated was pursued and the 
judgments and decrees complained of were set aside by the 
Circuit Courts. The action of the Circuit Courts in thus 
setting aside these judgments was in several cases appealed 
from and sustained by the Supreme Court of Appeals. 
David Freeland had recovered a judgment in 1865, against 
Joseph V. AYilliams for $1,110, for cattle carried away for 
the use of the Confederate army, and this judgment had been 
affirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeals at the July term 
in 1867. The judgment remained unsatisfied, and in August, 
1883, Williams filed a bill in chancery praying that the 
judgment be declared void and that Freeland be perpetually 
enjoined from collecting the same. The relief prayed for was 
granted by the Circuit Court and Freeland then presented to 
the Supreme Court of Appeals a petition for appeal in the 
manner provided by law, which petition was refused, and 
thereupon Freeland appealed to the Supreme Court of the 
United States. On the 13th of May, 1889, the opinion of 
that court was handed down by Mr. Justice Miller, in which 
it is held that the provision in the West Virginia Constitu- 
tion of 1872, in relation to judgments or decrees rendered 
because of acts done accordino; to the usages of civilized 
warfare '^does not impair the obligation of a contract within 
the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, when 
applied to a judgment previously obtained, founded upon a 
tort committed as an act of public war.'' Also that ^'a bill 
in equity to invalidate a judgment obtained against the de- 
fendant for a tort committed under military authority, in 
accordance with the usages of civilized warfare and as an act 
of public war and to also enjoin its enforcement is ' due pro- 



278 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

cess of law/ and is not in conflict with the Constitution of 
the United States." (131 U. 8., 405.) 

A full report of the action of tlie courts in relation to the 
attorney's test-oath would be too voluminous for the purposes 
of this chapter. A few cases must suffice. 

Andrew Hunter, Samuel Price, W. S. Summers, Samuel 
Miller and Caleb Boggess applied to the Supreme Court of 
Appeals, at its July term, in 1866, for permission to be ad- 
mitted to practice law without being required to take the test- 
oath for attorneys provided by the act of the I^egislature, 
passed February 14th, 18GG. Several of tlie a])plicants pro- 
duced pardons signed by the President of the United States. 
The questions involved were elaborately argued pro and co?i., 
and the Court took time to consider. At the January term, 
1867, the decision was announced, denying the application. 
The syllabus declares that the act imposing the oath is not 
unconstitutional, and that a pardon from the Federal Govern- 
ment cannot remove a disability imposed by the laws of West 
Virginia. (2 W,Va., 122.) The opinion in the case occu- 
pies forty-six pages of the volume of reports. Shortly before 
this decision was announced the Supreme Court of the United 
States had handed down its opinion in the Garland case (4 
Wallace, 333), in which an act of Congress passed January 
24, 1865, prescribing a test-oath for attorneys practicing in 
the Federal court was held to be ex j^ost facto, and, there- 
fore, in violation of the Constitution of the United States 
and null and void. This decision, by the highest court in 
the United States, was brought to the attention of the Judge 
who had already prepared his opinion denying the petition 
of the attorneys, and, not willing that so much labor should 
be thrown away, the learned Judge added a few lines to the 
essay, remarking, "After a careful examination of that deci- 
sion, as furnished, I am constrained to adhere to the opinion 
already advanced," This performance so delighted the parti- 
san majority in the Legislature, then in session, that it, by 
joint resolution, ordered five thousand copies of the opinion to 
be printed in pamphlet form for distribution by the members. 

As late as January, 1870, William A. Quarrier and Nich- 
olas Fitzhugh applied for admission to practice without taking 



EECONSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 279 

the test-oath, and produced pardons signed by the President 
of the United States, but the application was denied, the 
Court holding that, although the President's pardon might 
entitle the attorney to practice in the Federal courts, it could 
not restore to him the right to practice in the courts of West 
Virginia. (4 W. Ya., 210.) In this case Edwin M. Stanton, 
'Hhe great War Secretary," appeared in opposition to the 
prayer of the petitioners, and harangued the Court for an 
hour upon the theme that rebels had no rights which loyal 
men should respect. It was an appeal which Judge Nash, 
of Ohio, himself an ardent Republican, pronounced a dis- 
grace to the distinguished man who had uttered it, and a 
shame to the Court that had listened to it without rebuke. 

The action of the* Circuit and District Courts of tlie 
United States in West Virginia was in honorable contrast 
with that of the state judiciary. A great many indictments 
for treason were found by the grand juries, but not one of 
them ever came to trial. They were continued from term to 
term, in anticipation of the subsidence of popular prejudice 
and passion, and eventually all were dismissed. The returned 
confederates took the oath of amnesty required by the Presi- 
dent's proclamation of May 29th, 1865, and were no further 
molested by the Federal authorities. Attorneys who were 
debarred from appearing in the state courts met with no ob- 
stacle to the resumption of practice in the tribunals of the 
United States, the state authorities being much more fierce 
and vindictive in the punishment of rebellion against the 
United States than was the power against which the offense 
was mainly committed. 

But no history of the reconstruction period in West Vir- 
ginia would be complete without some reference to the part 
played by Nathaniel Harrison, Judge of the Seventh Judi- 
cial Circuit. This circuit embraced the counties of Green- 
brier, Nicholas, Monroe and Pocahontas. It has a large 
area in the southern part of the state and nearly all of the 
inhabitants were either in active service in the Confederate 
Army or aided and abetted the Southern cause. During a 
considerable portion of the period of the ^var the counties 
mentioned were within the lines of the Confederate Army. 



280 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Of course, public sentiment was overwhelmingly Southern. 
In these counties the registration law displayed its full 
power and operated in all its beauty. Enough men 
were found or imported who, by the help of an imper- 
fect memory or a flexible conscience could, or rather 
did, take the test-oath and hold all the offices. Occasionally 
the registrar would "doubt the loyalty " of one of the regis- 
tered voters and strike his name from the list, and thereby 
render him incapable of holding office, when all of the 
official power and perquisites he possessed would be parceled 
out amono; the remnant of the faithful. In the town of 
Lewisburg so many names had been from time to time erased 
from the list that the registrar gained the soubriquet of " Old 
Scratch," by which he was commonly known, and the voting 
population had been reduced to seven : " Old Scratch" and 
his son, two Irishmen and three negroes. The registrar held 
nine petty offices. Of this circuit Nathaniel Harrison was 
appointed Judge in 1865 by the Governor of the state. Har- 
rison was descended from a good family in Virginia and had 
resided several years in Philadelphia just before the war. He 
was a man of more than usual mental ability and was well 
versed in the law. Some time after the opening of the war 
he went through the lines and appeared in Richmond. He 
solicited appointment on the staff of General Chapman of 
the Virginia militia ; not getting this he sought position in 
the quartermaster's department of the Confederate Army ; 
not succeeding in this he sought employment in the bureau 
of exchange of prisoners of war and again failed of success. 
Disappointed and soured and attributing his ill success to the 
opposing influence of Allen T. Caperton, who Avas at that 
time a member of the Confederate States Senate, he drifted 
into Monroe county where his wife owned the Salt Sulphur 
Springs property, and where he continued to reside until his 
appointment as Judge. Not thinking it probable that his 
record would ever be brought up against him when possessed 
of the power of oppression which the office would give him, 
he took the test-oath, entered upon his duties as Judge, and 
straightway out-Heroded Herod in his persecution of the 
returned Confederates. He seems to have been especially 



KECONSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 281 

determined to ruin Mr. Caperton against whom he instigated 
and de<3ided not less than a hundred trespass suits. In every 
county in the circuit he breathed forth threatenin^s and 
slaughter and spread consternation and dismay. He was 
notoriously licentious in his mode of life and it soon became 
known that he was also corruptible in the administration of 
his public office. But his persecution of the ex-rebels won 
for him the high regard of the state Government and the en- 
thusiastic admiration of the Legislature. The Supreme 
Court of Appeals at that time consisted of three judges, and 
the law provided that when any one of the three was absent 
by reason of sickness, or was in any other way incapacitated 
from duty in court, a circuit court judge should be called in 
to take his place. Nat. Harrison made it convenient to 
attend at many of the sessions of the Court of Appeals and 
was frequently called upon to sit as one of the judges of that 
high tribunal, and in that capacity participated in rendering 
some of its most obnoxious decisions. In January, 1866, 
Col. Hounshell, who had been in the Confederate service, 
went to the seat of Government, at Wheeling, where the 
Legislature was sitting, with formal charges against Harrison, 
accusing him of disloyalty to the Government of the United 
States, maladministration of the duties of his office and per- 
jury. The charges were presented in the House of Delegates 
on the 7th day of February by Col. Dan. Johnson, a gallant 
and honorably discharged soldier of the Federal Army, who 
offered a joint resolution for the impeachment of the accused 
in the manner provided by law. So indignant were the mem- 
bers that an ex-Confederate officer, who did not come "with 
bated breath and whispering humbleness/' should be per- 
mitted thus " to rail upon the Lord's anointed," that Col. 
Hounshell, who was in the lobby of the House, was violently 
assaulted by three or four stalwart individuals and forcibly 
and unceremoniously kicked, beaten and thrust down the 
stairs and out of the building. On the next day the follow- 
ing resolutions, here copied verbatim, were offered and 
adopted under a suspension of the rules : 

" Hesolved, That this House deplores the disorderly scene that occurred 
in the hall immediately after adjournment last evening, gi'owing out 



282 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

of the introduction of a paper vliich was deemed by tins House a 
malicious atlempt to publicly slander one of the circuit judges of the state, 
aggravated by the haughty bearing and insulting language of the 
author of said slanderous paper towards the members of this House while 
in the halb The sergeiint-at- arms is instructed to Le vigilant in the pres- 
ervation of the peace, and ejection of all improper persons from this hall 
in future." 

^' Resolced, Tha.t no farther action be taken in the subject of the said 
slanderous paper, but to return it to its author, if to be found, through the 
sergeant-at-arms." 

The first attempt at the impeachment of Harrison liaving 
thus tragi -comically failed, he went back to his circuit with 
some new revenges to gratify and more firmly seated than 
before. He owned an interest in a little weekly newspaper 
called the 3Ionroe Republican, and he required all legal 
advertisements from all the counties in his circuit to be 
published in that paper. He advised litigants to employ 
a particuhir attorney whom he favored and from whom he 
received a share of the fees. He a]ii)ointed a receiver of the 
circuit courts of Greenbrier and Monroe, and allowed him 
a commission of two per cent, more tlian was allowed 
by law, and this two per cent, was believed to be the per- 
quisite of the judge. He borrowed for his own use, funds 
officially held by the receiver, and gave no security. He 
signed in his official capacity, the petition of an ex-Confeder- 
ate to the President of the United States for a pardon, and 
received three hundred dollars therefor. He took jurisdic- 
tion of cases in which he was himself a party interested. He 
advised the defendant in an action brought by a plaintiff 
whom he hated, to bring the case on for trial at a particular 
time promising to have a special jury summoned for the pur- 
pose of finding a verdict for the defendant. 

All this and more. He was openly intemperate and lewd ; 
wherever he went he sought the society of prostitutes, aud at 
nearly every })lace of holding court he had a negro mistress. 

By the grace of the registrars he was elected in 1868, his 
term of appointment having expired, and he then began to 
punish those who had opposed his election. A clause of the 
Constitution provided that, '^ No person except citizens en- 
titled to vote, shall be elected or appointed to any state, 
county or municipal office.'^ Accordingly Judge Harrison 



RECONSTRUCTION IN WEST VIRGINIA. 283 

directed '^ Old Scratch '^ to erase from the list of reo-istered 
voters the names of Joel McPhcrson, clerk of the circuit 
court of Greenbrier County ; Wallace Robinson, sheriif of 
said county ; G. A. Lewis, recorder, and Alexander Walker, 
a supervisor of one of the townships. He then declared the 
offices of these several gentlemen vacant, and proceeded to make 
appointments to suit himself. The outraged officials imme- 
diately appealed to the Supreme Court and were reinstated, 
but for some time after the order of the Supreme Court had 
been sent down, Harrison refused to recognize the officers thus 
restored. 

Alexander Walker who was a Northern man, a Republi- 
can, and a member of the bar, at last resolved to aid in a 
new attempt for the impeachment of the judge. He was col- 
lecting some evidence in relation to the matter when, on the 
1 2th of January, 1870, Harrison cauie into couit with a rule 
already prepared summoning Walker to show cause why he 
should not be disbarred for un])rofessional conduct, in soliciting 
affidavits concerning the judge's personal habits. Walker 
accepted service of the rule, and asked that he be allowed 
twenty-four hours in wdiich to procure an affidavit to be used 
in his defense. The judge would listen to no delay and di- 
rected the clerk to enter at once an order which had been pre- 
pared beforehand, disbarring Alexander Walker, and revoking 
his license as an attorney. Walker went to the Supreme 
Court of Appeals and the order was reversed and annulled. 

By this time the Republican party in the state found Judge 
Nat. Harrison a pretty heavy load to carry. He had become 
a stench in the nostrils of decent people all over the state and 
his infamies could be no longer winked at or brazenly ig- 
nored. In the Legislature of 1870, the storm burst. Arti- 
cles of impeachment with specifications, only a few of which 
have been referred to above, were adopted in both Houses, 
and the judge was summoned to appear for trial on the 25th 
of February. Harrison was in W^heeling, where the Legisla- 
ture was in session, when the joint resolution was adopted, 
but he fled from the state in order to escape service of notice 
until it would be too late for the Legislature to proceed with 
the trial at that session. He was followed to Pittsburgh, 



284 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

where he was found Id a brothel ; the notice was served upon 
him then and there; he returned to Wheeling the next day; 
handed to the Governor his resignation of the office of Judge 
of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, which was, perhaps too 
promptly, accepted ; and his name appears no more in the 
history of West A^irginia. A few years later he died in great 
destitution at Denver, Colorado, and his body was buried by 
the charity of the members of the bar. 

At the fall election in 1870, the Democrats elected the 
state officers and a majority of the members of each branch 
of the Legislature. A constitutional convention was called, 
which met in 1872, and the n^w constitution framed by it 
was ratified by the people, in October of that year. The era 
of proscription having passed, an era of prosperity began. 

O. S. Long. 
W. L. Wii^ON. 



CHAPTER X. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSOURI. 

IT may be fairly assuraed that the era of reconstruction, so 
called, began in Missouri, on February 13th, 1864, when 
an act of the General Assembly providing for a convention 
to amend the State Constitution went into eifect. By the 
terms of this act the convention was authorized to adopt such 
amendments to the State Constitution as might by them be 
deemed necessary to emancipate the slaves ; and also to pre- 
serve in purity the elective franchise to loyal citizens ; and 
such other amendments as might be deemed essential to the 
public good. 

Under this grant of power the convention proceeded to 
frame an entirely new constitution not excelled for proscrip- 
tion, injustice and inhumanity in the annals of civilized 
countries. 

It was known as the Drake Convention from the fact 
that Charles D. Drake, one of its members, and now ex-Chief 
Justice of the Court of Claims, was the controlling spirit, 
and absolutely dominated his timid and inferior colleagues. 

The third section of the organic instrument which the con- 
vention adopted, was as follows : 

Section 3. At any election held by the people under this 
constitution, or in pursuance of any law of this state, or any 
ordinance or by-law of any municipal corporation, no person 
shall be deemed a qualified voter, who has ever been in armed 
hostility to the United States, or to the lawful authorities 
thereof, or to the government of this state ; or has ever given 
aid, comfort, countenance or support to persons engaged in 
any such hostility; or has ever, in any manner, adhered to 
the enemies, foreign or domestic, of the United States, either 

285 



286 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

by contributing to them, or by unlawfully sending within 
their lines money, goods, letters or information ; or has ever 
disloyally held communication with such enemies; or has 
ever advised or aided any person to enter the service of such 
enemies ; or has ever, by act or word, manifested his adher- 
ence to the cause of such enemies, or his desire for their 
triumph over the arms of the United States, or his sympathy 
with those engaged in exciting or carrying on rebellion against 
the United States ; or has ever, except under overpowering 
compulsion, submitted to the authority, or been in the service 
of the so-called 'Confederate States of America' ; or has ever 
left the state and gone within the lines of the armies of the 
so-called ^Confederate States of America,' with the purpose of 
cohering to said states or armies ; or lias ever been a mem- 
ber of, or connected with, any order, society or organization 
inimical to the government of the United States, or to the 
government of this state; or has ever been engaged in gue- 
rilla warfare against the loyal inhabitants of the United 
States, or in that description of marauding commonly known 
as bush-whacking; or has ever knowingly and willingly har- 
bored, aided or countenanced any person so engaged ; or has 
ever come into or has left this state for the purpose of avoid- 
ing enrollment for or draft into the military service of the 
United States ; or has ever, with a view to avoid enrollment 
in the militia of this state, or to escape the performance of 
duty therein, or for any other purpose, enrolled himself, or 
authorized himself to be enrolled, by or before any officer, as 
disloyal, or as a Southern syraj>athizer, or in any other terms 
indicating his disaffection to the government of the United 
States in its contest with rebellion, or his sympathy with 
those engaged in such rebellion ; or having ever voted at any 
election by the people in this state, or in any other of the 
United States, or in any of their territories, or under the 
United States, shall thereafter have sought or received, 
under claim of alienage, the protection of any foreign Govern- 
ment, through any consul or other officer thereof, in order 
to secure exemption from military duty in the militia of 
this state, or in the Army of the United States ; nor shall 
any such person be capable of holding in thisstate, any office 



RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSOURI. 287 

of honor, trust or profit under its authority ; or of being 
an officer, councilman, director, trustee, or other manager of 
any corporation, public or private, now existing, or hereafter 
established by its authority ; or of acting as a professor or 
teacher in any educational institution, or in any common or 
other school ; or of holding any real estate, or other property 
in trust for the use of any church, religious society or congre- 
gation. But the foregoing provisions in relation to acts done 
against the United States shall not apply to any person not a 
citizen thereof, or who shall have committed such acts while 
in the service of some foreign country at war with the United 
States, and who has, since such acts, been naturalized, or mav 
hereafter be naturalized, under the laws of the United States ; 
and the oath of loyalty hereinafter prescribed when taken by 
any such person, shall be considered as taken in such sense." 

The Constitution also provided that the General Assembly 
should enact laws for the registration of voters, and that no 
one should be allowed to register or vote until he had taken 
an oath in accordance with the section above quoted, but that 
the taking such oath was not conclusive as to loyalty, but 
might be negatived by other evidence, the registering officers 
being the only judges. 

The ninth section provided that no person should practice 
law, or be competent as a bishop, priest, deacon, minister, 
elder, or other clergyman of any religious persuasion, sect or 
denomination, to teach, or preach, or solemnize marriages, 
unless such person shall have first taken, subscribed, and 
filed the expurgatorial oath required as to voters by the 
third section. 

Under these provisions the parent who had given a piece 
of bread or cup of water to a son in the service of the Con- 
federate States, or who had in any way expressed sympathy 
for such son, was prohibited from registering as a voter, or 
serving as a juror, or holding any office, or acting as trustee, 
or practicing law, or teaching in any school, or preaching the 
Gospel, or solemnizing any religious rite. 

A more inhuman, atrocious, and barbarous instrument than 
this Constitution was never invented. 

An election was ordered for June the 6th, 1865, to ascer- 



288 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

tain the sense of the people as to the adoption or rejection of 
the Constitution ; but no person was permitted to vote " who 
should not be a qualified voter according to the terms of this 
Constitution, if the second article thereof were then in force.'^ 
In other words, no one could vote who could not take the 
oath prescribed by the instrument upon the adoption of which 
the vote was taken. 

Of course, the Constitution was declared adopted, but with 
all the means that could be invented by partisan malevolence, 
or enforced bv brutal violence, the majority in the state was 
only 1,862, there being 43,670 votes for, and 41,808 votes 
against the instrument. It must be remembered that bodies 
of armed radical militia, inflamed with the worst passions of 
civil war, were camped around the voting places and bran- 
dished their weapons upon the day of election, with threats 
of violence to all who opposed the Constitution. The best 
men in the state were disfranchised — gray-haired pioneers 
who had fought the Indians for the soil on which they had 
built their homes; lawyers, eminent in their profession, who 
had presided over courts of justice, and others who liad made 
the first laws enacted for the state ; ministers who had spent 
their lives in preaching the Gospel of Christ; the first citi- 
zens and largest tax-payers were driven from the polls, whilst 
ignorance, violence, and fraud controlled the ballot box. 

So monstrous was the outrage, that many leaders of the 
Union party refused to take the oath prescribed, and openly 
denounced the Constitution. 

W. y. N. Bay and John D. S. Dryden, Judges of the Su- 
preme Court, and Union men of undoubted loyalty, refused 
to take the oath, and were removed from the bench by the 
police of St. Louis, and taken as prisoners before the City 
Recorder. 

Major-General Francis P. Blair, the admitted leader of the 
Unionists in Missouri, and who had commanded an army 
corps on the Federal side during the war, went before the 
Registers in his uniform, demanded to be recorded as a voter 
without taking the oath, and being refused at once instituted 
a suit for damages against the Registering officers. 

On January the 14th, 1867, the case of Father John A. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSOURI. 289 

Cummings, a Koman Catholic priest, who had been indicted 
and convicted for administering the rites of his church, with- 
out first taking the oath prescribed by the Drake Constitution 
came before the Supreme Court of the United States, the 
state of Missouri being defendant in error. It was held 
after an able and exhaustive review of all the questions in- 
volved in the record, by a majority of the Court, Justice 
Field delivering the opinion, that the Missouri test-oath as it 
was termed, was in violation of those provisions of the Fed- 
eral Constitution which prohibits any state from enacting a 
bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, and was therefore null 
and void. 

The twenty-fourth General Assembly elected under the 
operation of the unconstitutional provisions which disfran- 
chised the intelligent and property-holding voters of the state, 
assembled on January the 7th, 1868, and proceeded at once to 
enact a registration law far more stringent and arbitrary than 
that which had received the condemnation of the United 
States Supreme Court. 

RAILROADS SOLD. 

The same General Assembly, with a large Republican ma- 
jority in both House and Senate, passed an act, which was 
approved by the Republican Governor, on March 31st, 1868, 
providing for the sale of the Pacific Railroad, which had 
been forfeited to the state, to the Pacific Railroad Company, 
for the sum of $5,000,000, the state having issued its bonds 
to the amount of $7,000,000, to aid in the construction of the 
road. 

The influences which were potent enough to secure this 
legislation, may be conjectured from the official report of 
George R. Taylor, president of the company, made after the 
sale, to the board of directors, in which he stated that the 
passage of the bill had cost the company $192,000. 

It was well known at the time, and is now notorious, that 
the Legislature was purchased by the Railroad Company, and 
the amounts paid to various members have been often stated. 

During the six years from 1864 to 1870, when the Repub- 
19 



290 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

lican party controlled Missouri, venality, corruption and prof- 
ligate extravagance in expenditure of the people's money held 
high carnival. 

At different times ])rior to the war, the state granted to va- 
rious Railroad Companies aid in the construction of their 
roads within the state, by issuing state bonds to the amount 
of §23,701,000, viz : To the Pacific Railroad, $7,000,000. 
To the Pacific Railroad, for its South West Branch, $4,500,- 
000. To the Hannibal and St. Josei)h, $3,000,000. To the 
North Missouri, $4,350,000. To the St. Louis and Iron 
Mountain, §3,501,000. To the Cairo and Fulton, §G50,000. 
To the Platte Country, §700,000. By the terms of the con- 
tracts made with these companies, they bound themselves to 
pay the interest upon the bonds, advanced as it accrued, 
but failed to do so, and in consequence of such default, the 
roads were taken possession of under the provisions of the 
acts granting the state's aid, and sold by the state, the sales 
being made under the regime of the Republican party. 

As stated above, the amount advanced in bonds was 
$23,701,000, and the amount realized from the sale of the 
roads was §6,131,496, showing a net loss to the state of 
$17,569,504, together with interest on ])ast due coupons 
amounting to $14,166,366, making the debt, principal and 
interest at the date of sale, $31,735,840. 

There not being sufficient money in the State Treasury to 
meet the obligations incurred by reason of the aid to the 
i^oads, which obligations still rested upon the state less the 
proceeds of sales made by the Republicans, an act was passed 
by the General Assembly in March, 1867, authorizing a tax 
of forty cents on the hundred dollars upon all taxal)le prop- 
erty in the state for the purpose of paying the interest on the 
state debt, so that the legacy of the Republican party to the 
people of Missouri, after six years' rule, Avas the loss of the 
state's ownership in the valuable railroads built with the peo- 
ple's money, and a debt of many millions of dollars, to be 
paid by taxation upon the property of the citizens then liv- 
ino;, and those com i no; after them. 

The following summary of these brilliant financial achieve- 
ments by the Republican party of Missouri, will stand an 



RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSOURI. 291 

enduring monument of the reconstruction period in that Com- 
monwealth : 

Original debt assumed by the state, and past due, — 

Coupons, $31,755,840 

Deduct proceeds of sale of roads 6,131,496 

Balance to be paid by the state, 25,604,344 

Interest paid on this amount to date, .... 17,809,669 

Making total cost to the state, 143,414,013 

After regaining control of the state's affairs in 1872, the 
Democrats of Missouri have so managed and utilized the 
vast resources of the Commonwealth, that the debt left by the 
Republicans has been largely reduced and will in a few years 
be entirely extinguished. As an evidence of the economy and 
honesty with which the finances of Missouri have been 
handled since 1872, it is only necessary to note the fact that 
the bonds of the state command a higher price than those of 
any state in the Union, whilst the taxes imposed upon the 
people have been steadily decreased. 

It has been often claimed by the Republican leaders in 
Missouri, that the sale of the state's property in the railroads 
for the amounts received, was absolutely necessary at the 
time, in order to develope the resources of the state by put- 
ting the roads in the hands of individuals and corporations 
by whose enterprise they would be completed and operated. 

Two significant facts disprove this statement and show that 
other than patriotic motives induced these sales. 

The official report of George R. Taylor, President of the 
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, showing the expenditure 
of $192,000 by the Company to secure the passage of the act 
authorizing the sale of the Missouri Pacific Railroad for 
§5,000,000, and the ecpially extraordinary circumstances 
atlendino; the sale of the Iron Mountain and Cairo and Fulton 
Railroads in the year 1866. 

These roads were sold by three Commissioners, appointed 
by the Republican Governor, under the act of the General 
Assembly, approved March 19th, 1866. The law required 
the Commissioners to make the sale to the highest and best 
bidder, the bids to be handed, under seal, to the Commission. 



292 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The bid of John C. Vogel, Samuel Simmons et al., of 
$900,001), for both roads, was accepted, and the roads trans- 
ferred to these gentlemen, who immediately afterwards sold 
their interest to Thomas Allen for a much larger sum than 
the amount paid the state. 

And now comes the strangest part of this "strange, event- 
ful history." One of the Commissioners, a brother-in-law of 
the Governor, and belonging to the same party, resigned his 
place on the Commission, and in a published card stated tiiat 
the bid accepted by the Commissioners for the two roads, was 
not the highest and best, as the law required, but that he had 
in vain protested against the action of the other Commission- 
ers, and, being powerless as a minority member of the board, 
had no other alternative than to resign. 

In the face of these facts it requires vastly more than ordi- 
nary credulity to believe that patriotic motives caused these 
sales of the state's property. 

FRAUDULENT COUNTY BONDS. 

Another legacy of the six years' rule of the Republican 
party in Missouri, was a county and municipal b.onded in- 
debtedness of more than $15,000,000, created by county 
courts and the Republican officials of towns and cities, for the 
pretended purpose of constructing railroads which had no ex- 
istence except in the brains of corrupt speculators. 

The Drake Constitution having excluded from the ballot 
box a large majority of the property-holders of the state, 
there were elected in every county, town and city, by the 
vicious and ignorant element that felt no responsibility, and 
was the absolute property of designing carpet-baggers, corrupt 
officials, who became the willing tools of knaves and adven- 
turers. 

Railroads in every direction were projected, and county 
courts, city councils, and boards of trustees, elected by pau- 
pers and vagabonds, being under the law financial agents of 
counties^ cities and towns, went into partnership with corrupt 
speculators and issued without the knowledge and against the 
consent of the people, more than fifteen million dollars in 



EECONSTRUCTION IN MISSOURI. 293 

county and municipal bonds, the principal and interest of 
which have been, or are being, paid by the tax-payers. 

In vain did the plundered people appeal to the courts. By 
repeated decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
it was adjudged that bonds issued to construct railroads by 
county courts and municipal authorities, having the legal 
power to create such indebtedness, the bonds being regular 
upon their face, and giving no notice of fraud, were in the 
nature of negotiable instruments, issued to an innocent pur- 
chaser before maturity, for a valuable consideration, and must 
be paid, no matter how outrageous the robbery perpetrated 
by the county or other officials in creating them. 

Driven to desperation, the tax-payers in some localities rose 
against the conspirators, and avenged their wrongs in scenes 
of blood and horror. 

In 1872 the citizens of Cass County stopped a railroad 
train and shot to death the Presiding Judge of the County 
Court and the County Attorney, who had issued two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars of fraudulent county bonds, and 
divided them among a gang of faithless officials and corrupt 
adventurers. 

It is to be hoped that never again will be witnessed upon 
this continent the reign of fraud and outrage to which the 
people of Missouri were subjected during these years of Re- 
publican supremacy. They are to-day paying the fraudulent 
debts then created, and from which they cannot escape. 

Reconstruction in Missouri cost the tax-payers of the state 
heavily, but their experience has been cheaply bought, if it 
prevents the return to power of the party under whose 
auspices they were wronged and plundered. 

G. G. Vest. 



CHAPTER XL 

RECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 

CRIMINATION and recrimination are as repugnant to 
good taste as they are to my own inclination. Between 
sections of a common country they arc criminal. Under 
this conviction, and that all parts of our Republic; might be 
fraternized and united in a combined eifort to build up our 
great nationality, the Southern statesmen have abstained from 
replying to the many slanders against the Southern people, 
which have been widely circulated by Republican leaders, 
until their unanswered reiteration hassled to the belief that 
they are true, and has produced such wide-spread and deep- 
rooted prejudices among their less informed followers as to 
amount, in the judgment of thinking and patriotic men, to a 
serious danger to our institutions. 

As evidenced by the character of the late presidential cam- 
paign in the North, that section is becoming as separate and 
antagonistic as if we were two distinct and hostile empires. 

Surely this is to be deplored and surely it becomes a public 
duty of Southern men who know the facts, to disabuse the 
minds of the more candid of our fellow-citizens of the North ; 
to let them see that the antagonism of the people of the 
South to the Republican party is in no sense an antagonism 
to the Northern section of our common country; to show 
them that the conduct of this party in the South was such as 
not only to repel the patriotism and decency of the South, 
but was also such as should serve as a monumental warninor 
to the American people against all attempts to seek party ad- 
vantage through illegitimate or doubtful legislative enactment. 

It is under this conviction of duty that I have consented 
to write this review of Reconstruction in Arkansas. 

Nor is there the slightest admixture of malice in anything 
294 



RECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 295 

I shall say. Accordingly I shall not mention names except 
when absolutely necessary. I write not of persons, but of 
conditions, and methods, and outrages, which I could have 
hoped it might never be necessary to recall. 

Indeed, many a man who participated in these outrages, 
when surrounded by the temptations thrown around him by 
the then conditions, has become a respected and law-abiding 
citizen since he has been surrounded by the better influences 
of Democratic supremacy. I shall respect his present stand- 
ing, holding myself ready, however, to furnish names upon 
any demand entitled to respect. 

To obtain a clear appreciation of the state of things in 
Arkansas during reconstruction it will be necessary to show 
how the carpet-bag government was put upon our people by 
Congress, and also what sort of government it was. 

It was well known that the Southern people had retiirned 
from the civil war utterly impoverished. Their desolate 
homes were without furniture, without fencing, without labor, 
and often without houses. Nothing was left for the support 
of themselves and their families except their own courage 
and manhood, and therefore, they could not afford to lose 
time at elections except upon the most important questions. 

Accordingly when Congress, in the Reconstruction act of 
March 23, 1867, section 5, enacted, " That . . it Con- 

" gress shall be satisfied that such constitution meets the ap 
** proval of a majority of all the qualified electors . . . 
" and the constitution shall be approved by Congress the 
" state shall be declared entitled to representation . . . 
*^&c.," the people of Arkansas were disposed to be grateful 
to them for thus recognizing their impoverished condition 
and the consequent value to their families of their time, in 
thus enabling them to defeat an obnoxious constitution by 
simply registering and remaining at their much needed 
labors at home, not to vote at all being equivalent to a vote 
against it. 

Thus relying implicitly upon the good faith of Congress, 
the people pursued their labors in security, feeling assured 
that nothing very damaging to their interests would be con- 
summated without their consent. 



296 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? v 

A constitutional convention met and formulated a constitu- 
tion, which was so un-republicaa in its schedule that the 
people did not dream that Congress would approve it, and 
accordingly not nearly half of them voted upon its ratification. 

Its schedule gave three men, James L. Hodges, Joseph 
Brooks and Thomas M. Bowen, such absolute control of the 
election of state and county officials under it that they could 
elect or defeat whom they wished. 

Section 4 gave them power to select such judges and clerks 
of election as they saw fit, and to hold the election as long as 
they might wish in order to alford the negroes opportunity to 
vote in as many districts as might be needed (see military re- 
port of Gen. A. C. Gillem upon election in Pulaski County, 
April 22, 1868). 

Section 8 gave them power to reject or count all votes 
which seemed to them legal or illegal, fraudulent or rightful. 

Section 11 gave these election judges the right to allow 
any vote with which they might be " satisfied." 

This constitution ])rovided for the election of all state and 
county officers under this schedule. The election of these 
officers was dependent upon the ratification of the proposed 
constitution, for, although candidates should receive every 
vote cast for officers, the new government was only to go 
into operation on condition that the constitution should re- 
ceive the votes of a majority of all the registered electors. So 
read the law of Congress at the time the election for the rati- 
fication or rejection of the constitution began. 

But alas! On the second day after the election had begun 
and in the afternoon the following telegram was received by 
Gen. A. C. Gillem, the officer commanding : 

" Washington, March 13, 1868. — The last amendatory act passed is 
"now law. It provides that majority of votes actually cast determines 
** adoption or rejection of constitution ; also that electors may at the same 
*' time vote for members of Congress and all the elective officers provided 
" for by said constitution. U. S. Grant. 

" Major-General A- C. Gillem." 

This notification, coming two days after the election had 
begun, too late, as every congressman well knew, for the electors 
of a state having neither railroads or telegraphs, ever to 



EECONSTEUCTION IN AEKANSAS. 297 

hear of its existence in time for use. Such an election could 
not be in any sense regarded as fairly expressing the wishes of 
the people of the state. No election can or ought to be re- 
garded as fair by any authority unless there be full and fair 
notice of the terras upon which it is to be held. Conducted 
as they were the elections resulted in the organization of 
county, town and state governments, elected by a mere tithe 
of the voters. In Green County, for instance, the sheriff was 
elected by a total vote of eight ; the clerk by a total vote of 
seven ; the state senator from the district, composed of Law- 
rence, Randolph and Green Counties, was elected by a total 
vote of thirty. 

The assurance with which these carpet-bag citizens, fresh 
from the districts of these congressmen, assumed that they 
Avould be sustained by Congress ; the ready acceptance by 
that body of a constitution having such a history and wdiich 
the commanding general declared was not ratified except by 
counting 1,900 votes which were fraudulent, and the oppor- 
tune time at which this last "amendatory act ^' was passed 
and telegraphed, might even justify a suspicion of a con- 
spiracy between the Congress and the carpet-bag govern- 
ment. 

But the writer has no desire to assail Cong-ress. 

Recognizing the fact that they had been elected to office by 
an insignificant minority, the officials were shrewd enough to 
know that in order to hold their ill-gotten power it was ne- 
cessary that they should have absolute control, first, of the 
future elections ; second, of the revenues. But first of all 
they knew that, as there was likely to be trouble as soon as 
the people should find out how basely they had been betrayed 
}\nd how wantonly they were to be plundered of every sacred 
I'ght of the citizen, it was necessary that they should be 
thoroughly intimidated. 

Their first legislature in 1868 addressed themselves to 
thesje three tasks with the ingenuity of the brigand. 

Although Gen. C. H. Smith, U. S. A., commanding the 
district of Arkansas, wrote to his superior officer that there 
was no state of facts existing in Arkansas to warrant such a 
step, upon the flimsiest pretexts the governor declared martial 



298 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

law ill a uuraber of counties where the people were most out- 
spoken in tlieir denunciation of the government which had 
been thus foisted upon them witliout their consent. Negro 
militia marched and marauded and murdered at will through 
these counties. 

I might fill page after page with their atrocities, but I for- 
bear lest their detail stir up animosities which could do no 
good, but were better suppressed. 

They grew, however, to such enormity as to shock espe- 
cially the "old citizens,'^ who were members of the Legisla- 
ture, and who were more disposed to be conservative than the 
carpet-bag representatives, as will be seen by the following 
general order : 

" Little Eock, Dec. 4, 186B. 
" Brig. General Upham, 

"Commanding Dist. N. E. Ark. 
"General. — I am instructed by the Governor to write you as follows : 
" Altliougli the Legislature in the first part of the session fully endorsed 
" the action of his excellency in declaring martial law and putting into 
" active service the State Guards, it is ajjparent now that many of them are 
" ' weaker.ing/ especially are the old citizens beginning to refuse that support 
"which should be given the executive at this time. In order to prevent 
" the growth of this feeling and to take advantage of this faction it is de- 
"sirable that our military operations be pushed to an end within the next 
"thirty days. All we can do now is to show the rebels that we can march 
"the militia through any county in the state whenever it is necessary. Use 
*' every effort to catch the desperadoes in Woodruff, Craighead and Greene 
" Counties. 

" I hope you will end your operations in your section as soon as possible. 
" You see we are likely not only to have to fight the rebels but the Legis- 
"laturealso. We don't propose to allow any advantage. I am, General, 
" your obedient servant. " Keyes Danforth, 

"Adj't. General." 



In another order to General S. W. Mallory, commanding 
S. E. Dist. of Ark., on the 25ch day of December, 1868, ten 
days afterwards, the following sentence occurs : ". . . He," 
'^ the Governor, " thinks you may safely execute many of 
*^ them. It is absolutely necessary that some examples be 
'^ made. (Signed) 

^'Pbivate Secretary/' 



RECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 299 

It will be seen that he dare not sign his name to this carte 
blanche commission to murder. 

His caution, however, was quite unnecessary, as the Legis- 
lature subsequently passed an amnesty act forbidding the 
punishment of any of the murders or other outrages com- 
mitted by this militia. The act is here inserted. I would 
call especial attention to the phrase, *^ or otherwise," and its 
significance as it occurs in two places in the act. It covers a 
multitude of wanton crimes : 

" An act to declare valid and conclusive certain proclamations of the 
"Governor of the State of Arkansas and acts done in pursuance thereof, 
'' or in his orders in the declaration of martial law. 

'*Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas : 

" Section 1, That all acts, proclamations and orders of the Governor of 
" the State of Arkansas, or acts done by his authority, or approved after 
" the third day of November, 1868, and before the first day of April, 1869, 
" re-!pecting martial law, military trials by courts-martial, or military com- 
" missions or the arrest and imprisonment or trials of persons charged with 
" any ollense against the state, or any resistance to the laws thereof, or as 
"aiiers or abettors thereof, or as guilty of any disloyal practice in 
" aid thereof, or of affording aid or comfort to those en2,aged therein, 
"and all proceedings and acts done by the military forces, or had 
"by courts-martial or military commissions, arrests, imprisonments, 
"searches and seizures made in the premises l)y any person by the autiior- 
" ity of the orders of proclamations of the Governor of the State, made as 
''aforesaid, or in aid thereof, or otherwise, are hereby apjiroved in all re- 
'' spects, legalized and made valid to the same extent and with the same 
" effect as if said orders, proclamations and acts had been issued and made, 
"and said arrests, imprisonments, searches and seizures, proceedings and 
" acts had been done under the previous express authority and directions 
"of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas, and in pursuance of 
" the laws thereof, previously enacted, and expressly authorizing and di- 
"recting the same to be done. And no courts of the State of Arkansas 
"shall have or take jurisdiction of, or in any manner review any of the 
"proceedings had or acts done as aforesaid ; nor shall any person be hel 1 
"to answer in any court of said state, for any act done, or omitted to be 
"done, in pursuance of or in aid of any of said proclamations, or orders, or 
"otherwise, by any of said force or forces in the period aforesaid, arjd all 
" officers and other persons in the State of Arkansas, or who acted in aid 
" thereof, acting in the premises or otherwise shall be held to be prin)a 
"facie to have been authorized by the jzovernor of the state; provided, 
"that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prohibit the 
"convening of courts-martial for the trial of persons belonging to the 
" militia or state guards of this state. 

" Section 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its 
" passage. 

"Approved April 6, 1869." 



300 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Under these orders right eDergetically did they '^push their 
military operations.^' Democrats who were most outspoken 
were arrested without charge, carried off, nobody knows, even 
to this date, where, in some instances ; others were tied up and 
shot to death ; others whipped, others imprisoned, and all 
robbed of personal property. 

They seemed to act in these outrages, as in many others, 
upon the assumption that the more atrocious the outrage the 
less it would be believed in the civilized world, while the 
very complaints of them could be used as evidence of '' Rebel 
lies," and " Rebel bitterness and disloyalty.'' 

If it would serve any good purpose I might give scores of 
instances in detail. But suffice it to say that the very fact 
that any man connected with these murders and outrages 
could reside in Arkansas for from fifteen to twenty-five years 
afterwards unmolested, is the highest possible tribute to the 
love of peace and order of the people of the state. 

ELECTIONS. 

Their first election law was a model of mockery. It should 
be preserved in the archives of the Nation as at once a history 
and an admonition. 

Section 2270 (Gant's Digest) gave the Governor, with the 
consent of the Senate, power to select all the registrars of 
votes. 

Section 2274 gave him power to fill all vacancies (which 
were sure to occur when he wished it — see page 23 * Po- 
land's report No. 5, to the 42d Congress, 2d session). 

Section 2270 gave him the right to select the president of 
the Board of Registrars. 

Section 2281 gave the Board of Registrars power to reject 
any vote at will. 

Section 2288 gave the Board of Review the power to erase 
the names of those who had registered if they saw fit to do so. 

* The Republican House of the Forty-second Congress, second session, 
raised a Committee, of which Mr. Poland, of Vermont, was chairman, and 
fent them to Arkansas to investigate the affairs of Arkansas to ascertain if 
that state had a Republican form of government. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 301 

Section 2307 gave the Board the power to select all clerks 
and jndges of election. 

To make the job complete, section 2300 forbade any inter- 
ference by the courts of justice. 

Under this farce all the elections of the state were held 
until, in 1874, they had become so shocking to decency, the 
people by a vote of ten to one (or 88,000 to 8,000) demanded 
its overthrow. 

I might fill a thousand pages, as the report of Hon. Mr. 
Poland, of Vermont, fills upward of six hundred pages, with 
outrages upon the ballot perpetrated with impunity under this 
act, but in the interest of brevity I will cite only a few by 
way of illustrating each species. 

NO. 1. ERASING FROM REGISTRATION BOOKS. 

The favorite scheme, and the one practiced in every pre- 
cinct in the state, where it was necessary, was to first register 
all who were entitled to vote and then meet in review in some 
private place and scratch off with red ink such names as were 
necessary to secure their majority, under section 2288, which 
gave them that power. 

In this legislative district, composed of the counties of 
Franklin, Crawford, Sebastian and Scott, just before the 
election of 1872, 2500 names of legal voters were erased by 
the Board of Review after they had been registered. 

(See the depositions of many of them in Poland report 
No. 22, page 35 to 52.) 

In this county the board struck off 1300 names. 

(See testimony of one of the board, H. A. Pearce, Poland 
report No. 2, page 70.) 

Many of these were Union men and ex-Federal soldiers. 

NO. 2. THROWING OUT COUNTIES AND PRECINCTS. 

Another favorite plan, was to have their friends get up 
some sort of irregularity in precincts or counties and then use 
it as a pretext for throwing out the precinct or county vote 
entire. 



302 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

In 1872, after all the returns had come up to the Secretary 
of State, it was found that Brooks was elected Governor. 
That official (the Secretary of State) sent the returns back to 
be *^ doctored/' and letters were written to the clerks to amend 
returns, and excuses Avere gathered up for throwing out 
enough precincts and counties to elect Baxter. Democratic 
})recincts in Van Buren County, all but one in Conway County, 
all of Green, Johnson, Scott and Poinsett Counties were 
thrown out. Leading Republicans went all over the state 
to attend to the ''doctoring.'^ 

(See Poland's report No. 2, pages 244, 245, 255 and 67 to 
75.) 

In Hot Springs County, in 1868, the Register began to 
register votes, and had registered, perhaps, a dozen, when 
several gentlemen came into the yard to register. They were 
quietly laughing and conversing among themselves about 
e very-day matters, when the Register jumped up and said he 
wanted protection. The bystanders were astonished. They 
asked him what he meant? He rc])licd that if he could not 
get protection he w^ould quit, and immediately picked up his 
book and left. 

Nobody understood it until a few days afterward a procla- 
mation of the Governor declared that no election would be 
held in this county. The Register had selected an out-of-way 
precinct to enact this farce. Thus this Democratic county 
was wholly disfranchised. 

NO. 3. ERASING AND STUFFING. 

In Hot Springs County, in 1872, a candidate for State 
Senator fraudulently struck off three hundred names from 
the registration books and substituted in their stead several 
hundred straw names, and after the election, his brother being 
clerk, he called oft* these straw names and his brother added 
them to the poll list and voted them. Many of the names 
scratched oft" were those of Republicans, who would not vote 
for senator. (See Poland report No. 5, pages 22 to 28.) 

In Caddo Township, in Clark County, the poll book showed 
1148, whereas the registration book and the census showed 
only 800. (See Poland report No. 5, page 23.) 



BECONSTKUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 303 

In Missouri Township ihe candidate for Clerk, who was one 
of the judges of election, stole and stuffed the ballot box four 
hundred votes. This stuffing elected him. 

In Antioch Township only seventeen names registered but 
one hundred and twenty- one voted in 1870, etc. 

NO. 4. STEALING ONE BOX AND SUBSTITUTING ANOTHER. 

In the town of Van Buren, Crawford County, a leading 
negro was instructed to place sentinels upon the various roads 
leading into town, and to keep back negro voters until the 
afternoon. He was not told why. 

The supervisors of election were also kept outside until 
after dinner. The Democrats voted in the forenoon. When 
the judges and clerks and supervisors went up-stairs to dinner, 
a box already prepared, having as many votes in it as had 
voted in the forenoon, and all Republican votes, was substi- 
tuted for the one in which the forenoon votes had been cast 
and which was stolen. It was afterward found in the garret 
with the Democratic votes all in it. 

In the afternoon the negroes and Republicans did their 
voting in this new box, which was the one counted. 

(See Poland's report No. 2, pages 36, 49 and 50.) 

NO. 5. SECRETLY CHANGING POLLING-PLACES AND 

STUFFING. 

In Richland Township, in Crawford County, the polling- 
place was secretly changed on the night before the election of 
1872, from the place where it had been for thirty years, and 
removed six miles to a cane brake on the farm of the United 
States Marshal of the Western District of Arkansas. The 
negroes and the Republicans were advised of the change, but 
not the Democrats. 

A box with fifty votes in it, all Republican, was taken to 
the polling-place, and they were kept in the box and counted 
by the judge. The box was taken ten miles away in another 
township, and there the votes were counted. 

(See Poland report No. 2, pages 36 and 37.) 



304 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

NO. 6. DEFEATING REGISTRATION. 

The Board of Registrars would meet at the appointed time 
for registration, but would only let a few Re})ublicans in, and 
then adjourn to the next day. People would come for miles, 
for three or four days at a time, but as they could not get in, 
they would get discouraged and go home. In Clarksville 
and Newport and other phices, not one in ten could register. 

(See Poland report No. 2, pages 284, 289 and 290.) 

NO. 7. CERTIFICATION. 

It was a boast of the Clerk of Union County, that *' the 
Democrats must think I am a d — d fool, if they ever ex- 
pect me to certify a Democrat as elected while I am clerk." 

NO. 8. EXCHANGING. 

In 1872, in Cache Precinct in Monroe County, 125 more 
votes were voted for Brooks for Governor than the judges 
returned. Brooks' votes were given to Baxter and Baxter's 
to Brooks. 

(See page 333, Poland report No. 2.) 

But why multiply examples? Let any candid man read 
the 670 pages of Mr. Poland's two reports to the Forty- 
second Congress, second session, and say whether, if any Ar- 
kansian were seeking a generic phrase, which would include 
every species of outrage upon the ballot ever invented by 
man, he would not be justifiable in terming it 

" REPUBLICANIZING THE BALLOT?" 

Let it not be forgotten that I have not referred to the testi- 
mony of Democrats before that committee, but to that of Re- 
publicans and men, too, who had participated in the outrages 
to which they swore. They had perpetrated the outrages to 
secure the election of Baxter as Governor, but when he 
proved more honest than they had expected, they swore 
to their own infamy to get him unseated, and hfTv^ing been 
sustained so long by all departments of government, they 



EECONSTEUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 305 

fully expected Congress to do their bidding and to reinstate 
them. 

REVENUES. 

Their first revenue law is exquisite in the ingenuity of its 
plan of plunder. 

Responsible alone to public sentiment of the Worth, they 
dared not to make the rate of taxation too exorbitant, but 
raised their enormous revenues through exorbitant assess- 
ments, which could more readily be hidden from public view. 

For an illustration, in 1865, the first year of Democratic 
rule after the war and before reconstruction, the tax on the 
North 1 of Sec. 1, T. 4, S. R. 2 W., was $2A0. In 1873, 
the last year of Republican rule, the tax on same tract was 
$29.70, or upward of 

TWELVE TIMES AS MUCH. 

Or to take two other periods, in 1888, when property all 
over Arkansas was more valuable than ever before, a house 
and twelve lots in De Witt was assessed at §1060 under 
Democratic regime. 

In 1871, under Republican rule, the same house, with only 
half as many lots and not nearly so well improved, was 
assessed at $4640, or nearly five times as much. 

The tax on the same house, greatly improved, with twelve 
lots, was in 1888, under Democratic rule, $14.60. 

In 1871, on same house with only half as many lots, under 
Republican rule, the tax was $92.80, or nearly seven times 
as much. 

These remarkable differences were effected through the in- 
strumentality ot their peculiar assessment law. It is a curi- 
ous document. 

Section 38 gave the Governor power to appoint and to 
remove all assessors. 

Section 156 gave the assessor 3 J percent, commission upon 
all taxes collected, as a bribe to assass largely. 

Section 47 required him to swear that he had not assessed 
any property at less than its cash value. He could assess it 

20 



306 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

as much more as lie pleased, and no questions asked. Not only 
did the governor hold the power of removal m terrorcm over 
him; not only did they bribe him })y large commissions; 
not only did they swear him not to assess too little, but Sec- 
tions 53 and 64 made it the duty of the County Clerk to re- 
vise the assessor's return and to add as much as he saw fit, 
but forbade him to reduce " in any case/' 

Section 154 gave the clerk a bribe for adding in the shape 
of fees, the amount depending upon number of words. 

Sections 57 and QQ^ organized a County Board of Equaliza- 
tion, composed of this same assessor, this same clerk, and two 
other county officials interested in large tax crops. To this 
board the law said : 

You may raise any assessment you think proper, or reduce 
in any case you wish, but you shall not '' reduce the aggre- 
gate value of the property of the county below the aggregate 
value thereof as returned by the assessor with the additions 
of the clerk as hereinbefore required." 

Or as it was construed and acted u})on, "you may take 
from a llepublican as much as you ])lease, but you must put 
it upon Democrats, so as not to reduce the aggregate.^ 



yy 



EXTRAVAGANT RESULTS. 

Under Democratic rule the amount expended for state pur- 
poses for the two and one-half vears, from April 18th, 1864, 
to October 1st, 1866, was only |1 62,000, or $64,000 per 
annum. 

Under Republican rule for two years, ending October 1st, 
1870, the amount expended for state purposes, was $1,949,- 
456.72, or upward of §974,000 })er annum, being more than 
fifteen times as much. 

For two years ending October 1st, 1872, the amount ex- 
pended was $1,805,137.98, or upwards of §902,000 per an- 
num, being upward of fourteen times as much. 

For the two years ending October 1st, 1874, the amount 
expended was $2,529,686.91, or upwards of §1,264,000 per 
annum, being more than nineteen times as much. 

In addition to these amounts collected and expended during 



RECONSTEUCTION IN AKKAXSAS. 307 

these six years iiader Republican rule, they left outstand- 
ing claims amounting to |2, 147, 950. 20, which have been paid 
bv Democrats since, and which increases their annual average 
expenditures to §1,259,140.03, or nineteen times as much as 
under Democratic rule. 

One item will serve to account for this vast difference. 

It seems to have been necessary to import carpet-baggers to 
do certain work of this illegitimate government from which 
the old citizens recoiled, and when they came to Little Rock 
it was necessary to provide for them until they were needed in 
their respective fields of duty. Accordingly they were put 
upon the pay roll as clerks of some of the departments. For 
instance : 

Under the Democrats in 1866, the Auditor's office included 
that of Land Commissioner. The clerk hire for that year 
amounted to §4,373.60. 

Under Republican rule in 1873, the office has been divided 
into two. The clerk hire in one half (Auditor's office 
proper) amounted during that vear to §60,461.21. In the 
other half to §43,673.30, being a total of §104,434.51, or 
upwards of twenty-three times as much. (See special report 
of Auditor, January 7th, 1877.) 

That there be no quibbling about periods, let us take two 
others for comparison. 

During the six years of Repul:>lican rule there were expended 
for state purposes (not including school expenses) a total of 
§7,555,840.28, being an average of §1,259,140.03 per annum. 
Of this vast sum less than §iOO,000, or one 75th part, w^ere 
expended for public improvements. 

During six years of Democratic rule, from 1880 to 1886, 
(after most of the floating debt had been paid off) the total cost 
of state government (not including school expenses) was S2,- 
173,446.66, and of this more than §500,000, or nearly one- 
fourth, was for public buildings. 

Deducting amount for public buildings and we have under 
Democratic rule for six years, a total of §1,673,446.66, or 
about §278,000 per annum. 

Deducting amount for public buildings under Republican 
rule and we have left a total of §7,454,830.21 or upwards of 



308 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

$1,242,000 per annum. But it should be remembered that a 
very large part of the expenses under Democratic rule is for 
care of state institutions built by Democrats and not in ex- 
istence during the Republican regime. 

It must not be forgotten, if we would rightly appreciate 
the enormity of their plunder, that I have been speaking of 
state taxes and state expenses alone. The county, town and 
school district taxes and expenses were very much moreextrav- 
aoraiit and burdensome. 

The rate ol taxes m the various counties and towns 
ranged from 2 per cent, to 6 per cent., and school district tax 
from 2 per cent, to 3J per cent, and upon assessments often 
more than the property would sell for. These enormous 
taxes, taken together with the state tax, amounted, in hundreds 
and thousands of instances, to confiscation. In Union County 
hr.ndreds of farms were abandoned. 

In Arkansas Couuty 2,510 tracts of land were sold for taxes 
in 1868. 

In this city,* then a village, in 1873 a widow lady, who 
made a living by sewing, was taxed §60 on a piece of a lot 
fronting on a back alley and having a house which could be 
built for from $300 to $400. It was more money than she 
had ever had at one time in her life. My wife, moved to 
tears at her deep distress at the prospective and inevitable 
loss of her home, persuaded me to pay her taxes as an act of 
charity. 

The whole state was filled with despondency and gloom. 
No wonder that the next year there was such an overwhelm- 
ing demand for the overthrow of the conspiracy. 

But the half has not yet been told. In addition to all 
these vast revenues collected and wantonly expended, they left 
the state and every county, town and school district in the 
state overwhelmed with 

DEBTS. 

If there is a single exception I have not been able to find 
it out. 

I doubt not that the aggregate of these county debts 

* Fort Smith. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN AEKANSAS. 309 

amounted to more than the entire state debt, including the 
fraudulent bonds of the state, and yet there was absolutely 
nothing to show for them. 

The school district of Fort Smith, for an example, was left 
so deeply in debt that for several years a number of us had 
to support the public schools by private subscriptions, while 
the entire tax was appropriated to paying off its debts. 
' This county was left a debt of about |1 00,000, with not 
$500 worth of improvements to show for it. 

The county of Clark was left a debt of $300,000, of which 
only $500 was expended in public improvements. 

Chicot County has a debt of $400,000, with no quid pro quo 
handed down from the conspiracy. 

Pulaski County had a debt left her of nearly, if not quite, a 
$1,000,000 (including Little Eock). 

The scripts of the various towns, counties and school dis- 
tricts were worth only from 10 cents to 30 cents on the dollar. 
Even the state script, bearing 5 per cent, interest, was worth 
only 25 cents on the dollar. 

On the other hand, when the Democrats got in power, in 
1874, their constitution made the maximum of state taxes 1 
per cent, (we levy only one-half of that), that of the county 
one-half of 1 per cent., that of cities and towns one-half of 1 
per cent., that of school districts one-half of 1 per cent. It 
also forbids the issue of any bonds or other interest-bearing evi- 
dences of debt for any purpose except to pay pre-existing debts. 

Yet, notwithstanding these low rates, we have taken up 
upwards of two millions of the floating debt of the state, paid 
off several hundred thousand dollars of bonded debt, paid 
oif nearly all the county and school debts, have built an hun- 
dred times as many school-houses, and twenty times as many 
other public improvements as did the Republicans with all 
their millions of revenues, amounting to from ten to nineteen 
times as much as have been exacted from the people by the 
Democratic government. 

In addition to all these taxes, and county and town and 
school district debts, they left us a legacy of nearly ten mil- 
lions of fraudulent State bonds to be dealt with. 

1st. Under a law, since declared unconstitutional by our 



310 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Supreme Court, bonds of the state were issued, during Re- 
construction, to the amount of $5,350,000 to certain railroad 
companies, all in fraud of the law, even if it had been con- 
stitutional. Fi'om two to three times as much was issued to 
each road us the terms of the law allowed. 

To the M. & L. R. R. R. Co. was issued $1,200,000, 
nearly three times as much as was allowed by the terms of 
the law. 

To the L. R., P. B. <fe N. O. R. R. were issued— 

Railroad aid bonds, $750,000 

Levee bonds, 320,000 

(See page 25, Poland's report.) 

Of Chicot County bonus, 100,000 

This company built for all this only twelve miles of road, 
and then took up the iron to put it on other roads to draw 
bonds anew. 

To the M. O. & R. R. R. R. (a member of the Supreme 
Court being president) were issued both railroad aid bonds 
and levee bonds and Chicot County bonds — all fraudulent 
(see page 25, Poland's report and official record). 

And thus with all the roads which were corrupt enough to 
receive bonds. The road which really meant to be built, 
the I. M. & S. R. R., would not have them. And every 
road that received them was so much crippled that its com- 
pletion was delayed for years. The state not only did not 
receive any benefits, but injury instead. 

2d. Under two acts of the Legislature of 1869, when a 
few people desired to have their farms ditched or drained, 
they applied to the Commissioner of Public Works at the 
Capital, who, if he saw fit, had the ditches or drains made 
(see acts March 16th, 1869, and Sept. 12th, 1869). To pay 
for them, all the neighbors who were supposed ta be benefitted 
by them were taxed. Sometimes farms in the mountains, 
fifteen miles away, were taxed. These payments were made, 
in the first place, in *^sw^amp-land warrants.'' 

These acts were so clearly unconstitutional, and there was 
so much corruption connected with the issue of warrants, that 
they became entirely worthless; indeed, had no market value 
at all. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS. gH 

In 1871 the holders, or a number of them, bribed the 
Legislature to pass the act of March 21st, 1871, under 
which these warrants were to be taken up and exchanged for 
bonds of the state, known as "Levee bonds," and also made 
receivable for lands of the state. 

Under this last act §3,005,846.05 in '^ Levee bonds" were 
issued, although the act limited the issue to three millions. 

The act was held void by our Supreme Court, 

Under this act, also, bonds were to be issued to railroadu 
whose beds were available for levees or drains. 

A Senate Committee, in 1883, reported thut under this act — 

"The White River Valley and Texas R. R. Co. received bonds araount- 
"ing to $175,196.36. There was no such road. It may have been char- 
" tered, but no such road was ever built, and il' it had been it would have 
"been worthless as a levee." (See report for this as well as other items of 
the great fraud.) 

The report also says that upwards of a million acres of the 
best lands of the state were bought with these worthless 
warrants under this last act. 

3d. Under an act of the Legislature, ap})roved February 
24th, 1838, the state loaned a private bank in Little Rock, 
called the ^^Keal Estate Bank,'' five hundred thousand dol- 
lars in its bonds to be sold, but at not less than par, the 
proceeds to be used in starting a branch of their bank in Van 
Buren, in the western part of the state. 

The bank officers undertook to sell them to the North 
American Trust and Banking Company of New York. The 
company said that they had already floated as many Arkansas 
bonds as could be floated at par, and refused either to buy or 
to attempt to sell. 

The officers of the bank then hypothecated the bonds with 
this same company and drew out upon their security $121,333, 
and not for the purposes of the act, but for their own private 
purposes. 

The North American Company failed shortly afterward, 
owing one James Holford a large amount. He found among 
their assets these five hundred $1000 bonds, and demanded 
payment by the state. The Governor informed him that the 
bonds showed upon their face that they were in the possession 



312 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

of the Trust Company by fraud, and that they belonged not 
to Holford but to the state. 

Holford lield on to the bonds, and in April, 1869, he saw 
his opportunity with the carpet-bag Legislature. 

His agent asked them for the ^121,000 drawn out by the 
bank officers, together with interest. But the Legislature, 
through lobbyists, said, no, we will not pay you this amount 
of about §330,000, but if you will put in your claim for the 
^500,000, with forty years' interest, making in all $1,370,000, 
y/e will give you your $330,000 and avc will take the balance 
as a reward for our honesty ^'in restoring the honor and 
''credit of the state/' 

This amount was issued and so divided. 

These three classes of bonds were investigated by a com- 
mittee of the House, of which I was chairman. The almost 
unanimous report of the committee was the following /an- 
guage :— 

''Mr. Speaker: Your committee . . . have had in evidence 
"before theiu that there was formed and organized in tliis city, a combina- 
"tion of men, called a 'ring,' wlio had a regular cypher by which they 
"concealed their true names in their correspondence, 

" That this ' ring ' borrowed money from persons outside the state for tlie 
"purpose of bribing the Funding Act of April 6th, 18G9, through the Le- 
' gislature, of getting a distribution of the 'railroad aid' bond 
"and that seventy-five thousand dollars were subscribed by men interested 
"in the levee contracts with which to purchase the legishition, which made 
" levee bonds receivable for the lands of the state.'' 

[Signed] By nine of committee. 

(One Republican dissenting.) 

A few samples may be given. 

J. S. Haymaker had a contract for a ditch in Crawford 
County, for which he received three times its cost. It bene- 
fitted nobody, but farms up in the mountains were taxed to 
pay for it. Warrants were issued to him, which he wished 
to exchange for bonds and he was willing to pay for the en- 
actments of a law that would benefit him. 

I have in my possession a check drawn by him upon the 
Republican Bank in Little Rock for $2000, payable to the 
Secretary of Senate (whose father was a senator) when the 
act of March 21st, 1871, should be passed without amend- 



EECONSTRUCTION IN AEKANSAS. 313 

ment. Across the face is the acceptance of the bank upon 
conditions named. Across the face, also, is marked "paid 
March 21, 1871/^ and signed by the bank officials. 

Accompanying it the certificate of the Secretary of the 
Senate that the bill had passed. 

The partner of Mr. Haymaker in the banking business, in 
this city, testified that "Mr. Haymaker was one of the parties 
"interested in levee contracts. He showed me a note ad- 
" dressed to him by a member of the Legislature, without 
"signature, stating that he must have $10,000 for his support 
"and infiaence. 

"He also told me that he approached a certain man in 
"Little Rock for his support and influence in favor of the 
"levee act of March 21st, 1871, and was told that it could be 
"had for $25,000. 

"This price was refused, but afterward this same man 
"(whose name I am not certain of) was silenced by a threat 
"to thwart his aspirations to a position on the Supreme Bench, 
"which he afterwards got." 

A gentleman of high standing, who was employed in the 
offices of the leading lobbyists, testified that a certain dis- 
tinguished member of the Legislature got $25,000 for his 
support of the "Holford bond," or "funding bill,^' of April 
6th, 1869. That member was called before the committee, 
but declined to answer, and as we could not force him to 
criminate himself he was excused. 

A Republican state senator Avho was deep in the inside of 
matters, after warding off question after question by the 
chairman, finally admitted that his opinion was that the lob- 
byists, naming them, got $870,000 as their share. 

The people of the state, after ten years' discussion through 
the press and on the stump, adopted an amendment to the 
Constitution forbidding the Legislature ever to pay either 
principal or interest of these three classes of bonds. 

If this review were not already too long, I could show 
that the various county and school debts were equally fraud- 
ulent. In many of the counties script was forged and then 
bonded. 



314 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

MISCELLANEOUS OUTRAGES. 

Perhaps I can give no better idea of the condition and 
spirit of affairs during reconstruction, than by a few simple 
illustrations of a miscellaneous character. 

No. 1. A Judge of one of the circuits carried with him 
around his circuit an armed squad of men, who were placed 
on guard at the court-house door, and even around the bench. 
A citizen of Carroll County was arrested, examined and com- 
mitted to answer at circuit court for assault with intent to 
kill J. T. Hopper. The proof showed that the judge was 
himself implicated in a conspiracy to have Hopper killed. 
(I am informed that Hopper was a disgusted Republican.) 
The judge ordered the case dismissed before the grand jury 
could act. 

He also carried around with him a stenographer, but no- 
body ever heard of his having reported a line. In Carroll 
County, this judge ordered the clerk to illegally issue to this 
stenographer four hundred dollars in county script, but it was 
really to himself, for two nights afterward the judge lost it 
all at poker. 

No. 2. One of the reconstruction judges of our Supreme 
Court remarked to me the first time I ever met him, ^'D — n 
principle; I am for what will win." This same judge, while 
on the bench, was a lobbyist before the Legislature, and it 
was testified that he offered to buy votes for a United States 
Senator — our Chief Justice being another lobbyist. (See 
pages 91, 92 and 93 of the report of the Morrill committee to 
United States Senate of Forty-second Congress, third session.) 

Another judge, of same court, offered to sell his vote as a 
member of the Legislature, and in support of a corrupt 
scheme of robbery, for $25,000, as seen above. 

The Chief Justice, besides being a lobbyist, as before stated 
(as will be seen from his own testimony, pages 213-215, Po- 
land report No. 2), was chief counselor in 'Straightening'^ 
out crooked certificates and returns, president of the Repub- 
lican newspaper company, its behind-the-throne editor, chair- 
man of the Re])ublican State Central Committee, and Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of reconstructed Arkansas. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 31 5 

No. 3. The clerk of Union County, when threatened with 
prosecution for illegally issuing script to himself, remarked 
publicly that, "I would be a d — d fool to do that when I 
"have a court which will make me any allowance I ask for." 
(His certificate elected the court or defeated it.) 

The clerk of Clark County would take the script book with 
him, walk into a store, and asking how much he owed, 
would fill in a blank piece of script with the amount and pay 
his debt. 

No. 4. The assessor of Yell County (as in others) assessed 
the lands of Democrats at from two to five times the value 
of lands of Republicans lying alongside, having the same 
character and being much better improved. 

In this city the assessor lost heavily at faro one night. I 
was told the next morning that he rose from the faro table 
and remarked, "Well, I don't know how I will ever get even, 
"unless I raise the assessments of Fishback or some of these 
" other d — d Democrats.^' (He was entitled to 3J per cent, 
commission on the raise.) 

No. 5. In Hot Springs County, in 1873, the county court, 
through commissioners appointed by himself, contracted with 
the sheriif to have a court-house built, to be paid for in 
county bonds. The bonds were issued to the extent of §33,- 
000 worth. But the house was not built. The county did 
nol^ get even a brick-bat or nail in return for about §70,000, 
which was the total amount of bonds, interest and cost of 
suit, which the people have since paid. 

The Democrats have paid this since and built a very fine 
court-house. 

No. 6. In Perry County the county officials bought forty 
acres of land only a quarter of a mile from the county site, 
laid off a town on this forty acres, and then removed the 
county site to it. They then let a contract to their own 
stockholders in their new site for building a court-house at 
three times its value, and advanced money out of the county 
treasury with which to purchase and erect a saw-mill for the 
purpose of sawing the necessary lumber for their house. 

No. 7. In Clark County (as in several others) bonds of 
the county to the amount of §100,000 were fraudulently 



316 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

issued to a railroad, not a rod of which was ever built. The 
county has had these bonds to pay. 

In the same county script was forged to the amount of 
§63,000, and afterwards funded in county bonds. Suit was 
brought by innocent holders, and it was proven that they 
were forged. 

In the same county the county court paid out of the county 
treasury §1,625 to Republican lawyers as fees for defending 
a contest of the seats of judge, sheriff, clerk and treasurer. 

The clerk was also allowed and paid $'2,000 for stationery. 

The wife of the clerk testified that he had forced her to 
burn the script book. 

No. 8. In Union County, where the clerk who issued 
script to himself resided and presided, the average annual 
county expenditures during the six years of Republican rule 
amounted to $28,982.24. During the last fourteen years of 
Democratic rule the average annual expenditures have 
amounted to about $10,000. And much of this has gone to 
pay off a debt of $35,000 with interest left them by Repub- 
lican rule. 

No. 9. The spirit of the whole reconstruction business 
cannot be better illustrated than by two little side incidents : 

Mr. I. S. Haymaker, above referred to, when he first came 
to Arkansas, came to my house to induce me to go into the 
banking business with him. In the course of our conversa- 
tion he said that on his way to Fort Smith his steamboat 
stopped at Little Rock nearly twenty-four hours. While at 
the wharf a certain man (naming him), from the same town 
in Ohio with himself, but now in official position in Little 
Rock, came aboard and said to him : ^' Haymaker, get out 
'' here. Here are the finest pickings. We have got the d — d 
'^ rebels by the wool and w^e intend to pick them as long as 
** there is a lock of the fleece left." 

When I introduced to the constitutional convention of 1874 
the resolution looking to repudiating the fraudulent bonds 
above described, a banker from New York or Boston, I for- 
get which, was at Hot Springs, and remarked to a distin- 
guished gentleman of the state : '^ I have some of those 
" bonds myself." The gentleman asked him if he did not 



KECONSTRUCTION IN ARKANSAS. 317 

know how fraudulent they were, and that the people would 
not pay them. He replied : ^' I don't think they ought to, 
*' but they only cost me fifteen cents on the dollar, and I be- 
^' lieved the Republicans would hold this state for the next 
^' twenty-five years and in that time I would get a dollar for 
" my fifteen cents.'' 

No. 10. In Washington County the president of the 
board of registrars, in 1872, and the circuit judge of that 
circuit, had a conference with Z. M. Pettigrew, an old citizen 
who had been sheriff of the county before the war. They 
informed him that they forsaw the early overthrow of their 
party (subsequent events showed that they were frightened 
and wished to prepare for the future), and they wished him, 
although a Democrat, to be elected sheriff, offering to allow 
enough names to remain on the registration list to elect him 
if he would run. He agreed to do so upon condition that 
they would elect P. R. Smith, another Democrat, clerk. To 
this they agreed, and it was accordingly done — both were 
elected. 

No. 11. In 1871 the governor of the state was indicted 
by a Republican grand jury of the Federal court at Little 
Rock for issuing for a corrupt consideration a false certificate 
of election to John Edwards to Congress (the House of Rep- 
resentatives also unseated Edwards because the certificate was 
false). The same grand jury indicted the senator of Hot 
Springs County for erasing 300 names from the registration 
books and inserting several hundred straw names, which he 
and his brother afterwards fraudulently voted. 

The President of the United States removed both the 
United States marshal and the district attorney to protect 
these men from punishment, and put in their stead two 
henchmen of the indicted governor. The man appointed as 
district attorney had been a member of the governor's staff 
and was known as his serviceable tool, but was not known to 
the bar of the state. If he had ever had a case out of a 
justice of the peace's court or of any higher character than 
small misdemeanor in any other court, it is not generally 
known. (See Poland's report No. 5, pages 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 
20, 21, 22, 25.) 



318 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

No. 12. In Fort Spjith, in 1872, rig^lit under the eyes of the 
United States District Court for the Western District of Ark- 
ansas, under whose exclusive jurisdiction the election frauds of 
the district had been placed for the protection of the people, a 
long line of negroes extending across the street was stationed 
at the polling-place. As a negro would vote he would step out 
and go to the rear end of the line to keep out such as they 
did not wish to offer to vote, but to step out and give phice 
to such as they desired to vote. 

To prevent a riot on the part of the whites, who were thus 
kept away from the polls, a company of men armed with 
Winchester rifles were stationed in a room above the polling- 
place. 

United States District Judge W. W. Story appointed a 
supervisor of election for the precinct, but the judges of elec- 
tion refused to let him serve. This was communicated to the 
judge, who, instead of committing them for contempt, recalled 
the appointment and appointed another man, but the judges 
refused also to let him act, and sent the judge word that if he 
would appoint a certain other person he would be admitted. 
The United States district judge did as the men bade him. 

4s heretofore seen, the United States marshal of this same 
district was a party to the fraudulent removal of the precinct 
of Richland, in Crawford County, down to his farm (as seen 
by reference to Poland report above.) 

* Twenty-five hundred nan:ies of legal voters of this legisla- 
tive district were erased from the registration books by the 
board of review. One hundred and ten of these were ex- 
Federal soldiers. Thirteen hundred names in this county 
alone were scratched off. (See testimony of one of the reg- 
isters in Poland report, page 70.) 

In Big Creek Township, in this county, the name of an old 
Union man, who had lost four sons in the Federal army, was 
amono; those erased and disfranchised, while an armed militia 
stood before the polling-place and threatened to arrest any one 
who attempted to vote at the side polls under the enforce- 
ment act. 

The people proposed to appeal to the court for the punish- 
ment of these crimes. But the United States Marshal, him- 



EECONSTRUCTIOX IN ARKANSAS. 319 

self a partioeps Griminis, did not summon the Grand Jury 
selected by the Commissioners in the usual way. They at- 
tended court, however, and were on hand ready to serve. 
The court set aside the panel. The Marshal, instead of 
summoning these good and true men for a new panel, called 
persons whom he had brought for the purpose, many of whom 
had bften parties to election frauds. Thus not a man was 
punished or even indicted. 

I drew up a statement of the facts at the time, which v/as 
attested by twenty-two members of the bar in attendance 
upon the court, and sent it to the President of the United 
States. But the executive, as well as the judicial depart- 
ment of the government was deaf to our appeals. 

No. 13. Again and again these outrages were laid be- 
fore Congress in cases of contested seats both in the Senate 
and House, but in no instance was any attempt made to 
arrest them. 

And when, in 1874, Republicans and Democrats alike 
voting by the unprecedented majority of ten to one (in this 
county, having over 900 Republican votes, nearly all white, 
there were only two votes in opposition), demanded a new 
constitution, at once the cry started at Hot Springs, with 
the late O. P. ]Morton, of Indiana, then United States Sen- 
ator, and extended to Congress, that we were engaged in a 
revolutionary proceeding, and the Poland Committee was 
sent to investigate us. 

The report of that committee should be had by every 
voter in the North. 

It may not be out of place just here to say that the same 
Republican grand jury which indicted the Governor in 1871 
was called to examine cases against Democrats, but could 
hnd no proof. (See Poland's report No. 5, page 8.) 

AVhat, then, is there about the Republican ])arty as our 
people know it to commend it to self-respecting, patriotic 
men of the South? 

In whatever attitude they have presented themselves to 
us, whether as committing every species of outrage upon 
human rights to attain party success, or as bitterly and 
falsely maligning the people of the South in every cam- 



320 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

paign since the war, or in whatever aspect they have ap- 
peared, they have led our people to believe their motive 
and their motto to be, as expressed by one of their leaders 
in this state: "D — n principle; I am for what will win.'' 
Surely, after reading these facts, it will not be necessary 
for our candid, reasonable fellow-citizens of the North to 
account for the solidity of the South upon the hypothesis 
of hostility to the Northern section of our common country. 

W. M. FiSHBACK. 



CHAPTER XII. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 



THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS, THEIR DEFINITION, AND HOW THEY 

OPERATED. 

IN August, 1866, a convention to promote the restoration 
of the Union, which had been broken by the interstate 
war, was held at Philadelphia. Addressing a committee 
of that convention, communicating its proceedings, President 
Andrew Johnson, describing the pending Reconstruction Acts, 
said : " We have seen this Congress pretend to be for the 
Union, when its every step and act tended to perpetuate dis- 
union and make a disruption of the States inevitable. Instead 
of promoting restoration and harmony, its legislation has par- 
taken of the character of penalties, retaliation and revenge.'' 
In his message of March 2d, 1867, vetoing a bill "to provide 
for the more efficient government of the rebel States," he 
described it as a measure not only violative of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, but " utterly destructive of those 
great principles of liberty and humanity for which our an- 
cestors on both sides of the Atlantic have shed so much blood 
and expended so much treasure." Demonstrating the accu- 
racy of this characterization, he said that the governments 
provided by the measure "closely resembled" those which 
had been tried in Hungary, Poland and Ireland, and inflicted 
sufiering which "roused the sympathies of the entire world." 
These declarations cannot be discredited as the testimony of a 
wdtnCvSS biased toward the Southern people. Andrew Johnson 
had given the strongest proof of his opposition to their 
course. A Southern man by birth and training, and once a 
trusted leader of the Southern Democracy, he had forsworn 
his allegiance to his own people, abandoned them, attached 
21 321 



322 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

himself to the Republican party, a Northern sectional organ- 
ization, and had been elevated to the Presidency by virtue of 
the office of Vice-President, to which he was elected on the 
Republican ticket, as the associate of Abraham Lincoln. He 
had commended himself to the favor of that party by his 
violent denunciation of the policy of secession, and by his 
speeches '^breatliing threatenings and slaughter" against the 
Southern people. 

Pretermitting a discussion of the causes which led to the 
war between the states, the object of this paper is to show 
that the plan of reconstruction devised and enforced by the 
Republican party, and characterized as unconstitutional, vin- 
dictive and despotic by President Johnson, one of its chosen 
apostles, was not justified by the end which it professed to 
seek in waging w^ar against the Southern States, and was 
without a single palliating circumstance. The writer speaks 
especially for Mississippi, whose cause, however, was similar 
to that of her sister Confederate States. The inquiry arises, 
What was the motive assigned by the Congress of the United 
States in making war against the Southern States? It is 
answered by a resolution which passed Congress in July, 
1861, declaratory of the objects of the war, as follows : — 

'*i^eso/t'e(/," etc., . . "that this war is not waged upon 
our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of 
conquest or subjugation, nor puq^ose of overthrowing or in- 
terfering with rights or established institutlonsof those States, 
but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitu- 
tion, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality 
and rights of the several States unimpaired," etc., etc. The 
evidence is incontrovertible that the purpose here set forth 
was practically attained when, overwhelmed by the superior 
military resources of the United States Government, the 
armies of the Confederate States surrendered after a long and 
unequal contest and their government was dissolved. 

Mississippi's prompt acquiescence. 

Immediately upon the surrender of the southern armies, 
the Governor of Mississippi, Hon. Charles Clarke, issued his 



RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 323 

proclamation convening the Legislature for the avowed pur- 
pose of recognizing the authority of the United States, and 
restoring the State to harmonious relations to that government. 
His prompt action meant the sanction by Mississippi of the 
amendment to the Constitution of the United States abolish- 
ing slavery ; the enforcement of legislation consistent with 
this organic change in the institution of the State ; the election 
of Senators and Kepresentatives, and all other acts essential 
to the complete restoration of the State to the Union. As soon 
as the Legislature assembled to carry out this purpose, it was 
dissolved by the edict of a military commander. The Gover- 
nor, when in the very act of co-operating wath it for this 
avowed object, was arrested and carried under military escort 
to prison in a distant state. If it was truthfully declared in 
the resolution above quoted that the war was prosecuted " to 
preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality and rights 
of the States unimpaired," the removal of the Governor, and 
the dispersion of the Legislature v^diile in the act of comply- 
ing with the requirement of the government, was unnecessary 
and absolutely despotic. A striking proof of the inconsistency 
of President Johnson is that the order for this arbitrary pro- 
ceeding emanated from him as commander-in-chief of the 
Army and Navy of the United States. It will be remember- 
ed that in his message of March 2d, 18(37, he stated that 
Mississippi (in common with the other seceding States) " had an 
actual government with all the powers, executive, judicial 
and legislative, which belonged to a free state.'' The machinery 
for managing their domestic concerns has never been dis- 
turbed. Their subsequent action during his administration 
served to bring forth in bold relief the patient endurance of 
the people of the State, and a perfect good faith of their de- 
clared intention to restore it to the Union. Setting aside the 
quick and ready plan already adopted by them. President 
Johnson appointed Hon. W. L. Sharkey, the most prominent 
of the original Union men in the state. Provisional Governor. 
Acting in obedience to the order of the President, Governor 
Sharkey on July 1st, 1865, issued his proclamation stating 
that he had been commissioned as Provisional Governor ^^ for 
the purpose of enabling the loyal people of the state to organ- 



324 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ize a state government;'' and to accomplish this object he 
had been directed '' at tlie earliest practicable period to pre- 
scribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary and 
proper for convening a convention of delegates to be chosen 
by that portion of the people of the State who are loyal to the 
United States, and none others, for the purpose of altering or 
amending the Constitution thereof so that the State may be 
able to resume its place in the Union." The Provisional 
Governor in order to expedite the restoration of the State to 
^ the Union, continued in the discharge of their functions the 
local and county officers who were in office when the armies 
of the Confederacy surrendered, reserving the authority, how- 
ever, to remove such incumbents as were '^ not loyal to the 
government of the United States.'' He earnestly invoked 
*' loyal citizens to give timely information in regard to any 
officer obnoxious to the serious objection " of disloyalty. In 
this proclamation. Governor Sharkey said " the negroes are 
free, free by the fortunes of war, free by common consent, 
free practically as w^ell as theoretically, and it is too late to 
raise a technical question as to the means by which they 
became so ; " that " the paramount duty before us, was the 
business of improving our government, if it should be found 
to need it, and of promoting reconciliation between the 
Northern and Southern people." The convention which 
assembled in obedience to this call, was composed almost ex- 
clusively of 

ORIGINAL UNION MEN 

— " of gentlemen," to borrow the language of one of its promi- 
nent members, " wdio held oj^inions directly theojiposite of those 
of Mr. Jefferson Davis." The convention adliered strictly to 
the line of policy indicated by the Governor ; and its j)resid- 
ing officer at the conclusion of its business, in his valedictory 
said, that it " had acted with a determined purpose to cherish 
to the last day of our generation, and hand down to our chil- 
dren to protect and cherish forever the Constitution and the 
Union of the States." The convention besides framing an 
organic law adapted to the changed condition of the State, 
provided, also, for the election of State officers, members of a 



EECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 325 

Legislature soon to be assembled, and of Senators and Repre- 
sentatives in Congress. The civil and military leaders who 
had been jDromineut in the secession movement, either betook 
themselves, or were sent, to the rear ; but candor requires 
that it should be stated that this disposition of them was not 
due to the belief of any considerable number of the people 
that they should be put under the ban. It was in accord 
with the eternal fitness of things, and a concession to what 
was understood to be the predominating Northern idea that 
the execution of the plan of restoring the state to the Union 
should be confided to those who had opposed secession. In 
answering the summons to come unto the marriage, the people 
aimed to present themselves in a garb suited to the occasion, 
and to furnish no excuse for their rejection. 

THE CONCURRENT TESTIMONY OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON 
AND GENERAL GRANT. 

President Johnson signalized the event by a message to 
Congress, December 5,1865, stating that*' the rebellion'* 
(his language not mine) " had been suppressed ; that the 
United States are in possession of every State in which the 
insurrection had existed ; and that so far as could be done 
the courts of the United States had been restored ; post-offices 
had been re-established, and steps taken to put into effective 
operation the revenue laws of the country.'^ He said that 
*' the Southern States , ' (naming Mississippi among them) 
*' have re-organized their respective State Governments, and 
are yielding obedience to the laws and Government of the 
United States with more willingness and greater promptitude 
than under the circumstances could reasonably have been an- 
ticipated ; the amendment abolishing slavery had been rati- 
fied, and that measures had been adopted, or are now pending, 
to confer upon the freedmen, the rights and privileges which 
are essential to their comfort, security and protection." His 
message was supplemented by a report from General Grant 
who had been directed to make a tour of inspection through 
the Southern States. In this report, dated December, 1865, 
General Grant said : "With the approval of the President and 



326 WHY TIII^ SOLID SOUTH? 

Secretary of War, I left Washington City on the 27th of last 
jHionth for the purpose of making a tour of inspection in the 
Southern States. ... I am satisfied that the mass of 
tliinking men of the South accept the present situation of 
affairs in good faith. . . . There is universal acquiescence in 
the authority of the general Government, etc. . . . My 
observations lead me to the conclusion that they (the citizens 
of the Southern States) are anxious to return to self-govern- 
ment within the Union as soon as possible ; . . . that 
they are in earnest in wishing to do what they think is re- 
quired by the Government, not humiliating to them as citi- 
zens, and that if such a course was pointed out, they would 
pursue it in good faith.'' 

THE STATE, NEVERTHELESS, PUT UNDER MILITARY 

DESPOTISM. 

After such prompt compliance with every demand which 
had been made by the United States authorities, and the com- 
plete accomplishment of the purposes of the war as declared 
by the resolution of July, 18G1, future generations in study- 
ing the history of those eventful times, will be amazed and 
shocked that the party which dominated the Government, re- 
fused to recognize the right of the Slate to be restored to the 
Union; refused to admit her Senators and Kepresentatives 
to Congress ; abolished her Government with its Constitution 
prohibiting slavery ; obliterated every vestige of civil au- 
thority, and divided the seceding States into five 



MILITARY DISTRICTS 



» 



subject to the control of officers of the United States Army, 
with soldiers in readiness to execute their orders. In a word, 
all the time-honored safeguards of freedom were set aside, 
and the will of these military chiefs became the supreme law. 
They were clothed with autocratic power over the unfortu- 
nate inhabitants who had been promised restoration to the 
Union " with all the dignity, equality and rights of the state, 
unimpaired.'^ The pretended motive for this arbitrary meas- 
ure was that '^the civil governments in the rebel States were 



RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 327 

not legal governments/' It has been seen that this was an 
assumption utterly witliout foundation. 

The military governments were characterized by the most 
horrible excesses. Their establishment was preliminary to a 
call by each of the military commanders, for conventions to 
frame other constitutions, and impose other conditions not 
embraced in the resolution of July, 1861, harsh, vindictive 
and humiliating. A very large number of capable and patri- 
otic white citizens, though they had renewed dieir allegiance 
to the Union, were debarred from voting in the election of 
members to the convention. Test oaths with fearful penalties 
were devised for the exclusion of the proscribed classes. 
With these exceptions, every male person of legal age, resi- 
dent in the state, including negroes who 

DID NOT KNOW WHAT VOTING MEANT 

and were totally ignorant of the responsibilities of citizenship, 
were authorized to vote and to become members of the con- 
vention on which was devolved the momentous duty of framing 
the organic law of the commonwealth. The bill provided 
complete machinery for putting the scheme into execution. It 
was as repulsive as it could be made to men '^in whose veins 
the blood of freedom circulated.'^ The hapless people were put 
in a fearful dilemma, between the devil and the deep sea. 
Their only escape from the horrid rule of inexperienced and 
(in some instances) brutal military chiefs, was through the 
wilderness of a civil government framed by alien rascal- 
lions and ignorant negroes. Outraged by previous bad faith 
and despairing of being able to propitiate the dominant party 
of the Union, many worthy citizens who had been active in 
the plan originally prescribed by President Lincoln and 
adopted by his successor for restoring the State to the Union, 
made, as I then thought, and still believe, the mistake of 
standing aloof and refusing to take part in this latter scheme 
of reconstruction, but in justification of their course, to quote 
the language of John Q. Adams, of Massachusetts, it should 
be remembered that the authors of the measure, " had scorned 
their protests, repelled their aid, insulted their misery, and 
inflicted on them an abasement which they fer to be iutoler- 



328 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

able, in postiog over them their slaves of yesterday, to secure 
their pledge of submission to the Constitution of the United 
Slates/^ In a few counties capable and patriotic men were 
elected to the convention, but they were shining exceptions 
to the rule of ignorance and depravity which pervaded what 
became memorable as 

THE BLACK AND TAN CONVENTION. 

The reconstruction acts were general invitations to un- 
principled adventurers, offscourings of the white race, from 
every part of the country, to come and ally themselves with 
the late slaves, and organize a local government which, while 
serving as an agency of plunder, would increase the strength 
of the dominant party in both branches of Congress and the 
electoral college. In the qualities of ignorance, corruption 
and depravity, the convention was all that the imagination 
could conceive. It was a fool's paradise for the negroes Avho 
undertook to perform what they were incapable of doing, and 
as to their mercenary white leaders, ^' the stream of purpose 
which ran through all their actions was plunder and re vx'uge.^^ 
Not one of the authors and abettors of the plan, was actuated 
by a higher motive than party success. Not one of them be- 
lieved that it would promote the restoration of the Union to 
substitute the rule of knaves and negroes, for the State govern- 
ments which they had overthrown. They knew the deprav- 
ity of the white renegades whom they had commissioned to 
do this Avork, and they knew (to employ the language of a 
Northern statesman and Union soldier) that " in the whole 
historic period of the world, the negro race had never esta- 
blished or maintained a government for themselves,^^ much 
less had they shown their competency to govern the white 
race. The convention dragged its slow length through many 
long, weary months. Its members lived in a state of luxuiy 
unknown to their previous habits. They voted themselves 
ten dollars a day and paid their innumerable employees wages 
correspondingly high. Its cost aggregated nearly a quarter mil- 
lion of dollars which they extorted from the impoverished 
white people at the point of the bayonet wielded by the mili- 
tary chiefs who were holding them in subjection. One of their 



RECONSTRUCTION IN 'MISSISSIPPI. 329 

tax bills, however, was so manifestly a robbing device, so cruel 
and extortionate, that even the commanding general moved 
to compassion, interposed his autocratic power and annulled 
it. Many of the members had no local habitation in the 
counties they pretended to represent, nor employment ex- 
cept as law makers for the people among whom they did not 
reside, and over whom they had come to rule. When the 
labors of this motley assembly came to an end, 

THE INSTRUMENT WHICH THEY CALLED A CONSTITUTION, 

proved to be worthy of its parentage : '^ a league with death 
and a covenant with hell." If it had been permitted to stand 
as it came from the hands of its authors, it would have per- 
manently disfranchised many of the intelligent tax-payers and 
best citizens of the white race. It was a cunningly-devised 
scheme to create a multiplicity of offices, and to make the 
State government a close corporation for the benefit of the 
cormorants. It professed to '^establish justice,'^ and yet it 
would have excluded nearly one-half of the intelligent white 
citizens of the State from participation in the government, 
other than in bearing its burdens. It pretended that it was 
designed to " maintain order,'^ and yet it contained the germs 
of inevitable disorder. It professed that it was designed to 
'' perpetuate liberty," and yet it would have practically en- 
slaved a large number of the free born white people of the 
State. The test oath which it prescribed, according to the testi- 
mony of one of the conspirators, was intended ^' as a perma- 
nent feature of the constitution for all offices from Governor 
to Constable." (Tarbell's testimony before Congressional 
Committee, 276.) It went to the extreme of disfranchising 
those who had charitably contributed to the relief of sick and 
suffering Confederate soldiers. The father who had furnished 
food and raiment to his son serving in the Confederate army, 
was made to pay the penalty of political death unless he would 
purge himself of the imputed crime by taking the oath that 
he had not been guilty of it. The colored man who had vol- 
untarily remained at home, and raised corn and meat for the 
subsistence of the Southern soldiers, could not have voted 
without incurring the penalty affixed to the offense. 



330 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

It is the purpose of the writer to note only the proseriptive 
features of the constitution though it contained many 

OTHER ODIOUS PROVISIONS. 

It authorized the creation of sinecures without limit. Its 
authors did even worse. They empowered the Legislature to 
supersede the time-honored and impartial system of trial 
by jury of the vicinage, by providing for the indictment and 
trial of persons charged with crime in any county other than 
the one in which it was alleged to have been committed (Art. 
12, Sec. 4). Transportation for trial was one of the griev- 
ances enumerated by the signers of the Declaration of Ameri- 
can Independence against the British crown, and for resisting 
which, they made their appeal to a candid world. And even 
worse, the wicked defiance of the law of Almighty God to 
divide human beings into distinct races, and the institution of 
a beastly system of mongrelism usually called " social equal- 
ity/^ cropped out in every part of the scheme. The intent 
was show^n in the public school system for which it provided, 
and in the clauses relating to public conveyances and to State 
charitable institutions. These provisions, according to their 
original intent, have passed into " innoxuous desuetude '^ 
under the invincible determination of the white race, but this 
does not change their meaning, and the design of the framers. 

THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTION REJECTED. 

The supplementary reconstruction bill provided that the 
Constitution should be submitted for ratification to the per- 
sons who were allowed to vote on the question, within thirty 
days. With a determination born of desperation, the white 
people of the State arose in a body and concentrated their en- 
ergies to reject the proposed constitution. By the force of 
will resistless as the cyclone when it takes its march, and 
which swept multitudes of colored men into their movement, 
the scheme was rejected, and with it the men w^ho had been 
selected by the adventurers to fill the offices they had created. 

But now comes 



BECONSTHUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 331 

A STILL DAEKER CHAPTER 

in the history of these disgraceful times. The authors of the 
constitution, disappointed by the failure of their scheme, 
refused to abide by the decision, though the election upon the 
question of ratification was held under the rigid regulations 
and strict surv^eillance of the military commander, who, on 
oath, stated that he had held a fair election ; that his subordi- 
nates " were selected on account of their firmness, experience, 
and moral character;" and that ''they were all officers of the 
Union army who had served during the rebellion." To 
secure ^'a fair election" he had stationed troops at sixty 
places within the State, and they were promptly sent to every- 
place " wdiere reports were made that intimidation was threat- 
ened." The whole business was in the hands of the military. 
The only privilege which the commander vouchsafed to the 
white residents w^as to vote, and even this privilege was de- 
nied to a large number of them. The right of freely discuss- 
ing it was frequently interfered with. Nevertheless, it was 
swept aside by the aroused people like chaff before the wind, 
a signal instance of the utter impotence of any device, how- 
ever cunningly contrived, to hold the white race in permanent 
subjection to the rule of an inferior race. 

HOW THE CONSPIRACY WAS WORKED. 

It would be tedious to narrate the unscrupulous means 
which were employed to force the disfranchising Constitution 
upon an unwilling people. The conspiracy was Avorked 
mainly by a '^ committee of five," who issued a manifesto, 
declaring that the counties of Carroll, Copiah, Chickasaw, 
Desoto, Lafayette, Rankin and Yallobusha, had been carried 
against the Constitution by fraud, intimidation and violence, 
and should be deprived of representation in the Legislature, 
the State offices, and in Congress. The petition to the Fed- 
eral authorities to put the proposed Government into opera- 
tion, notwithstanding the rejection of the Constitution, was 
supported by perjured testimony, imputing the most out- 
rageous crimes to the persons wdiom they sought to place 
under permanent disability. A specimen of the pretended 



332 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

testimony of the baffled conspirators will suffice: One "T. 
Vi. Stringer," a colored importation from Ohio, swore that 
the late venerable Chief Justice Sharkey, whose life had ex- 
euiplified the Christian virtues of peace and good-will to 
men, at the head of an armed band, had assaulted the "Com- 
mittee of Five'' when engaged in its virtuous task of investi- 
gating the election ; and that the military commander himself 
did not perform his duty faithfully in the management of the 
election. Also, that "in a fair election twenty-five colored 
men would not have voted against the Constitution," not- 
withstanding its proscriptive clauses. 

On the recommendation of President Grant, Congress 
passed an act providing for another election, which secured to 
the people an opportunity to vote uj:)on the disfranchising 
clauses separately, and at the same time for State officers, 
members of the Legislature, and Representatives in Congress. 
The scheme included the sanction of the Fourteentli and Fif- 
teenth Amendments, which incorporated in the Constitution 
of the United States suffrage in the States without regard to 
race, color, or previous condition. It was a revolutionary 
measure, violative of the compact of Union, which required 
that the Constitution should be amended by the voluntary 
action of the States and not by the declaration of Congress. 
It was a departure from the resolutions which passed that 
body in July, 1861, declaratory of the purposes of the war. 
This election was held on the 30th of November, 1869. 
Driv^en to the alternative of a choice between military des- 
potism and a local government under the constitution as 
changed, the Avhite people chose the latter, with the hope of 
discarding the organic law made by the carpet-baggers and 
negroes and reestablishing home rule in the not distant future. 

Meantime, the adventurers had industriously, and by the 
most insidious method, drilled the negroes, who composed a 
large majority of the voting population, into partisan activity. 
They organized them into secret conspiracies, known as 

LOYAL LEAGUES, 

and with oaths, bound them to do their bidding. By appeals 
to their fears and to their instinct of race, and by deceptive 



RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 333 

promises of blessiogs which they could never realize, and di- 
viding v>^ith them the innumerable offices for which provision 
was made in the Constitution they had artfully framed, the 
negroes became for six years pliant instruments in the hands 
of the adventurers. The purpose of the organic law which 
they had originated, and their every device, tended to the one 
object of robbing and luxuriating upon, the labor of the im- 
poverished people. Having the entire election machinery in 
their control and the army at their command, they secured 
four-fifths of the Legislature (the white counties having been 
deprived of equal representation by a discriminating and 
iniquitous apportionment), elected their ticket for State 
officers and Senators and Representatives in Congress. In a 
word, mongrelism, ignorance and depravity were installed. 
The State had been *'' reconstructed '' after the most approved 
fashion of Thad. Stevens, Charles Sumner, O. P. Morton, 
John Sherman and other great Republican leaders, w'ho looked 
complacently on their w^ork and said it was good. The 
Legislature was composed mainly of 

NEGROES AND CARPET BAGGERS, 

with a small ingredient of honest and capable citizens of 
Avhite counties which had been allowed meagre representa- 
tion. One of the persons elected to the United States Senate 
w^as a negro, a new-comer froni some other part of the coun- 
try ; and the other was Adelbert Ames, an army officer who had 
superintended the election and of whom it w^as truthfully 
said by Hon. J. L. Alcorn, another Republican, '^ He does 
not live here ; he has no interest in Mississippi except simply 
to hold an office as long as that office continues ; and when 
the office ends, he is done with Mississippi.^^ He was subse- 
quently transferred from the United States Senate to the 
office of Governor. The most becoming act of this adven- 
turer was his resignation of the latter office and departure for 
his home in the North pending articles of impeachment. 
Every department of the State government was in the con- 
trol of the adventurers and negroes. The latter race had a 
majority in the Legislature, and on several occasions, drew 



334 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the color line and asserted their supremacy. It can be 
readily seen that ^' reconstruction '^ meant 

ORGANIZED WAR BETWEEN THE RACES. 

There could be no peace, prosperity nor order in a State 
thus governed. The era of niongrelism was an era of 
anguish and antagonism ; an era of fraud and profligacy. 
The authoritias of the State did not reflect the will nor pro- 
mote the welfare of the peo})le. Unprincipled adventurers, 
and their illiterate and ambitious negro allies, ruled and 
robbed. Justice was bought and sold. Taxes amounted to 
confiscation. Labor was robbed of its earnings. The demon 
of strife like ^'a fury crowned with thorns^' was turned 
loose. Chaos had come again. It should be remembered 
that at the close of the war, the people of Mississippi had 
been brought to the lowest depths of poverty, always excepting 
the Dugald Dalgettys, who, professing to be on either side, as 
occasion offered, levied contributions on both. Landlords 
found their estates encumbered and run to waste. They were 
pursued with remorseless greed by rapacious creditors. 
Their laboring capital was gone. Their dwellings were 
dilapidated or totally destroyed. Their gin houses were 
dismantled or burned. Their fences rotted down. The mer- 
chants, finding their means swept out of existence, were 
forced to compromise with creditors upon terms which under 
other circumstances would have been discreditable. The con- 
dition of the emancipated race was deplorable. Traditional 
slaves, the responsibilities of freedom and citizenship were 
put upon them suddenly when they were incapable of bearing 
them. The idea they had of freedom was that it would 
relieve them of the necessity of labor, and license them to 
live in idleness, and to indulge in w^hatever propensity they 
might desire to follow. Every expedient was devised by 
their self-constituted guardians to mislead, to deceive and rob 
them of their scanty earnings. A 

GIGANTIC SWINDLING AGENCY 

known as the Freed men's Savings Bank, was established at 
Washington, with br'anches extending through the negro 



EECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 335 

centres of the South, by the preteDded benefactors of the 
freedraen. Into this concern they were induced to deposit 
their small earnings, which were greedily seized and appropri- 
ated by the human vultures. These deposits have not yet 
been returned, and though nearly all of the original victims 
have passed away, claim agents, in the hope of reaping a 
reward, are beseiging Congress for an appropriation to refund 
them out of the Federal treasury. While white and black 
were struggling in the 

SLOUGH OF A CO:NrMON CALAMITY, 

such " reconstruction ^' as I have described was inaug^urated. 
The various departments of the State government Avere filled 
for the most part as Horace Greeley said, by " rascally advent- 
urers and refuse of Northern society who came South, out at 
elbows to make their fortunes;^' negroes, many of whom, 
did not know the first letter in the alphabet, and scallawags 
who were natives to the soil and readily became participants 
in " gathering up the wreck " as their nefarious occupation 
was appropriately called. The government managed by these 
classes, it may be imagined greatly aggravated the misfortunes 
of the people. In an address dated October 8th, 1875, upon 
the decrease of pro})erty values during five years of their 
rule, it was demonstrated that it had produced widespread 
destruction, that the cormorants were devouring more than 
the toiling people could make by the utmost industry and 
economy. The progress from the lower deep of desolation to 
still lower depths was going on with frightful speed. Under 
the organic law framed for the purpose of encouraging such 
abuses, the Legislature, constituted mainly of the same material 
which composed the Mongrel Convention, multiplied offices 
for the benefit of drones, originated jobs, and voted appropri- 
ations for the enrichment of rings. The halls, lobbies and 
committee rooms of the capitol swarmed with harpies. Igno- 
rance and knavery, inside and out, contended for the mastery 
over intelligence and honesty. The stream could rise no 
higher than its source, and was therefore polluted and corrupt. 
The Judiciary was partisan, not only in the sense that it 



336 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

was composed of members of one political organization : but 
with rare exceptions, they draggled the ermine in the mire 
of partisan politics, and prostituted to party ends the 
influence reflected from their positions. Judges were ap- 
pointed on political grounds without reference to qualification ; 
and the selection of incompetents was of frequent occurrence. 
As the property rights, and personal security of every indi- 
vidual in a comnuinity, depend on the wisdom, integrity, and 
stability of the courts of justice, a learned and upright judici- 
ary is a public blessing ; but the sum of all curses is a judici- 
ary that is weak, incompetent and corrupt. 

The Executive Department lavished large sums for which 
no account was rendered, on partisan favorites emjiloyed in 
the despicable capacity of spies, always a favorite custom of 
despots who wronged, and feared, the people. This depart- 
ment had the ready co-operation of the Legislature, in all 
those infamous schemes of the reconstruction era, such as the 
Picked Cavalry and the Gatlin gun bills for terrorizing the 
j)eople ; the bill to carry into eifect the clause of the consti- 
tution authorizing the transportation of persons for trial to 
counties remote from the ])laces where their offences were al- 
leged to have been committed, the Pearl Piver Navigation 
swindle and kindred measures. It was a custom of the Gov- 
ernor in derogation of the honor and dignity of the State, 
upon pretexts created by his own machinations to call upon 
the federal government for troops to keep the peace, to enforce 
his decrees and to interfere in State elections. This practice 
was contrary to the traditions of a free people, and has ever 
been especially repugnant to t^e people of this country. The 
colonists before they separated from Great Britain indignantly 
remonstrated when troops were stationed in their midst, and 
notified the government of that country that they would not 
deliberate in their assemblies while troops were stationed in the 
vicinage. The English-speaking people have ever regarded 
a standing army at the polls as the deadly enemy of freedom. 

An act of Parliament passed in 1735, directed that no troops 
should be quartered at any place where an election was to be 
held. Gov. Ames, not unmindful of the repugnance of the 
people of the United States to the continued use of troops in 



EECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 337 

the States of the Union, with shameless effrontery on the 11th 
of September, 1875, repeated the call which he had made on the 
President for additional military force, saying : ^- 1 am aware 
of the reluctance of the people of the country towards 
national interference in State elections, (by the use of troops). 
. . . Permit me to hope that the odium of such inter- 
ference will not attach to the President, or the Republican 
party. Let the odium in all its magnitude descend upon me.'' 
He said it was an 

*^AN ISSUE OF EACE," 

and nothing less than the military power of the United 
States could settle it." This '' issue," it will be borne in 
mind, was an inevitable consequence of the plan of ^^ recon- 
struction '' w!:ich had been devised pretendedly to maintain 
^' unimpaired," ^^the dignity, equality and rights of the sev- 
eral States." 

Under pretence of an educational system wasteful appro- 
priations were made. The chief ground of complaint by the 
impoverished tax-payers was that the system instead of being 
a nursery of useful knowledge, honesty and correct principle 
in the training of the youths of the State the way they should 
go, became in fact the convenient cover for all kinds of plun- 
dering schemes, jobs in school books, jobs in school buildings, 
jobs in school furniture, jobs in everything. School warrants 
were depreciated to afford operators the opportunity of 
speculating and amassing fortunes. The highest rate of com- 
pensation was paid for the lowest standard of qualification. 
The head of the department was an embezzler, forger and 
thief, who wound up his career by fleeing from the State to 
avoid the penalty of his crime. Speaking of this refugee 
naturally reminds me of the Penitentiary. 

This institution had been self-sustaining before the war. 
Its well-trained muscular labor ought to have more than 
indemnified the State after the war, but it became a heavy 
burden, costing on an average during the six years of carpet- 
bag misrule the large sum of seventy-seven thousand dollars 
a year. 

Its financial policy was a model of 

22 



338 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

PKOFLIGACY AND EXTRAVAGANCE. 

It was described in language more forcible than I can 
command, by the late Henry Musgrove, Auditor of Public 
Accounts during the first four years of misrule. In his 
report of January 1st, 1874, he said: ^' For the past three 
years, and the present one now before you, in no single 
instance have the receipts proper reached the expenditures of 
any year ; but on the contrary, the latter have far exceeded 
the former, and hence a debt of considerable magnitude has 
increased year after year." 

Governor Ames, in his message of January 4, 1874, bore 
testimony to the deplorable financial condition, saying: 
"The state is in debt, her credit is impaired. '' For the 
increase of indebtedness from a mere song to several millions, 
there was nothing to show except the dejn-ession of all kinds 
of industry and an alarming diminution of the property 
values of the State. Deplorable is the fate of a people whose 
agents habitually make larger appropriations from their 
treasury than can be collected by the most grinding system of 
taxation. It eats up the fruits of toil. Destroys values. 
Depresses business. Imposes upon them the most exacting of 
task-masters, an oppressive public debt. Such was the sys- 
tem declared to have been put in practice during the " recon- 
struction ^' period. The anomaly existed of an increase of 
the public debt in proportion to the increase of taxes. The 
decrease in proj)erty valuation during these six years of mal- 
administration amounted to forty millions of dollars. Six 
million four hundred thousand acres comprising twenty per 
cent, of the lands in the State, had been forfeited for non-pay- 
ment of taxes. After they were confiscated they ceased to be 
taxable, and the taxes upon those which remained in the pos- 
session of their owners, were proportionately raised. 

THE tax-payers' PRAYER. 

The tax-payers assembled in a State convention to consider 
their wrongs; and on the 4th January, 1875, addressed an 
earnest petition to the Legislature for relief. From this 
petition the following extract is made : 



EECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 339 

" To show the extraordinary and rapid increase of taxation 
imposed on this impoverished people, tliese particulars are 
cited : In 1869, the state levy was ten cents on the hundred 
dollars of assessed value of lands. For the year 1871, it 
was four times as great. For 1872, it was four times as 
great. For the year 1873, it was eight and a half times as 
great. For the year 1874, it was fourteen times as great. 
The people are poorer than ever before. . . . The aggre- 
gate amount of taxes levied on us, in our poverty, greatly 
exceeds the amount levied on us in prosperous days. Thus 
as the people become poorer, are their burdens increased. In 
many counties, the increase in the county levies, has been still 
greater.^' Hon. George C. ISIcKee, then and now, a trusted 
Republican leader, wrote : " I would beg you to bear in mind 
that there is no fear of cutting too deep. The evil is enor- 
mous. The petition of the tax-payers should be heeded." 
Hon. George E. Harris, Republican Ex-Attorney General, 
and member of Congress, in an open letter to a political asso- 
ciate, said : " The people are in a stafe of exasperation, and 
in their poverty and desperation they are in arms against the 
burden of taxes levied and collected on their property. They 
have made a respectful appeal to the Legislature for relief." 
But the respectful appeal of the tax-payers was treated with 
contempt. It was laughed to scorn by the adventurers and 
negroes into whose keeping " reconstruction " had been com- 
mitted, the affairs of the state. And thus the condition grew 
from bad to worse. The curses of Pharaoh had come again. 
They were not frogs. They were human vultures who 
gnawed like consuming cancers into the substance of the 
people. 

INFAMY AND DISGRACE CONSTANTLY INCEEASING. 

In reading the foregoing sketch of the evils produced by 
" reconstruction '^ upon the plan enforced by the dominant 
party of the Union, the public will discern the accuracy of 
the following description of the Southern State governments 
made at the time by a prominent Northern statesman, Hon. 
Eugene Hale, a United States Senator from Maine. 

" The infamy and disgrace of certain Southern State gov- 



340 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

crnments have been constantly on tlie increase, . . . There 
have been bad men in those states who have bought power 
by wholesale bribery, and have enriched themselves at the 
expense of the people by peculation, or open-handed robbery. 
Corruption and anarchy have occupied and possessed these 
unfortunate States.'^ 

True to the life. If corruption was sought it was here. 
If knavery, it was here. If ignorance, it was here. If " an- 
archy," it was here. The wickedness and folly of forcing the 
negro into collision with the white race was apparent. The 
criminal intent to install the former as the ruler of the latter 
was so gross a violation of nature's laws, that it forced the 
whites to ignore all other considerations and unite as one man 
for self-protection. The adventurers were reckless and de- 
praved. The negroes were intoxicated by the dizzy height to 
which they had been suddenly raised. The attempt of sec- 
tional agitators and philonegrists to reverse the abnormal 
relation of the two races produced the inevitable consequence 
of strife and bloody conflict. It was worse than folly to 
suppose that the negro who had through all the ages shown 
his utter incapacity for self-government could be elevated from 
a state of slavery into the rulership of the race which history 
teaches had sometimes been forced to succumb to superior 
numbers of its own kind, but had never bent the suppliant 
knee to an inferior race. In Mississippi, the vigilance, forti- 
tude, courage, and natural force of the white race prevented a 
repetition of the histories of the negro countries of Hayti and 
San Domingo where the comparatively few whites residing in 
the islands when emancipation was proclaimed were either 
massacred or banished. 

RESCUED FROM MISRULE. 

It has been seen that in 1869, a determined effort enabled 
the white people to defeat the scheme for their permanent dis- 
franchisement. In 1875, by a similar resolute endeavor, they 
succeeded in rescuing the State from the misrule which I have 
sketched. 

In an address to the ensuing Democratic State Convention, 



RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPL 341 

Hon. J. Z. George, Chairman of the State Executive Com- 
mittee said : '' For the past six years our struggle has been 
to overthrow misrule and to secure the opportunity of self- 
government. We were then without a policy beyond the de- 
termination that economy should supersede waste, and honesty 
and competency should expel vice and ignorance from official 
life. The particular measures by which a people can be made 
great and prosperous did not engage our attention. Now it 
behooves us to consider what measures will most advance us, 
and see that they are adopted/^ 

AVhen this address v/as delivered a Democratic Legislature 
had already been elected. Governor Ames had resigned and 
left the State. A Democrat (Hon. J. M. Stone) by virtue of 
his election as presiding officer of the State Senate, had been 
installed in the office of Governor, and measures had been 
taken to arrest the downward course of the State. It was a 
saying of Edmund Burke that in England from the earliest 
times the great battles for freedom had been fought on the 
question of taxation. Here in Mississippi it had been fought 
on the questions of taxation and of social order. The first 
step of the reformers was to reduce the one and establish the 
other. They hastened to lift the burden of superfluous taxes 
from the shoulders of the oppressed people ; to dismiss super- 
numerary officials ; to improve the common school system ; to 
abolish sinecures, and to reduce salaries. State taxes were 
reduced from 9J mills on the dollar to 2J mills. The taxing 
power of county boards of supervisors was restricted. It had 
been shamefully abused. In the counties where the colored 
element predominated, taxes had ranged anywhere from 15 
to 50 mills on the dollar. To prevent this abuse, a law was 
passed prohibiting boards of supervisors from levying taxes 
for county purposes which added to the state tax, would exceed 
12^ mills on the dollar, except for indispensable purposes. 
The State was placed on an honest financial basis, by which 
her depreciated bonds were brought to par. The levee system 
was improved. The cumbrous and expensive system of hold- 
ing elections was superseded by a simpler and more economi- 
cal one. Of the 6,400,000 acres of land which were forfeited 
for non-payment of the excessive taxes imposed, all except 



342 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

250,000 have been redeemed. Property valuation has been 
largely increased. Outside capital, too cautious to trust itself 
to a state administration in which ignorance and corruption 
were the rule, and capacity and integrity the exception, com- 
menced seeking investment in all kinds of industrial enter- 
prises. In 1870, there were in round numbers but 800 miles 
of railroad in the State. In 1889, there were 2,100 miles. 
In the public school system the improvement has been marked. 
For educational purposes, the whites pay 90 per cent, of the 
taxes, and realize in the schooling of their own race about 40 
per cent. A careful investigation of the educational reforms 
in Mississippi, in common with the other States of the South, 
has induced a Northern educator, Rev. Dr. A. D. Mayo, 
eminent alike for his learning and philanthropy, to declare 
that ^' no other people in human history has made an effort so 
remarkable as the people of the South, in re-establishing their 
schools and colleges. Overwhelmed by war and bad govern- 
ment, they have done wonders,'^ (he continues,) ^' and with 
the interest and zeal now felt in public schools in the South, 
the hope for the future is brighter th^m ever.'' He added : 
^^ Last year these IG states paid nearly $1,000,000 each for 
educational purposes, a sum greater according to their means, 
than ten times the amount now paid by most of the New 
Eugland States.'' 

This statement of the eminent Massachusetts educator and 
philanthropist, is fully verified as to Mississippi, by the report 
of the State Superintendent of Public Education for the year 
1889, wherein it is shown that the State appropriated $1,209,- 

343 for school purposes, on a total assessment of property 
amounting to §157,518,906, and that the number of children 
enrolled in her public schools are 148,435 white and 172,552 
colored. 

Mr. Spooner, of AVisconsin, a distinguished Republican 
leader, in a speech in the United States Senate, delivered as 
late as March 3, 1890, fully supports the glowing report of 
Dr. Mayo. He says : 

" The South, since 1880, not only has grown with wonder- 
ful rapidity, justifying the pride with which her people de- 
clare to the world their material resources, but she has grown 



RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 343 

since 1880, marvelously in the matter of common school edu- 
cation/' 

Fortifying his statement with unanswerable figures, he 
adds : 

*^ I am brought to the proposition that the Southern people 
have not only been doing well since 1870 and 1880 in the 
education of white children, but they have been doing well 
in the education of colored children." 

In the same connection, he utters the indisputable truth, 
that " the burden of the expense is mainly defrayed by the 
white people of the South.'' 

Statistics show that JVXississippi has kept abreast with her 
sister commonwealths of the South. 

And so there has been a long stride in the 

MARCH OP IMPROVEMENT, 

in every element w^hich makes up the sum of public prosper- 
ity. While no profane attempt has been made to annul the 
distinctions which Infinite Wisdom has established between the 
Caucasian and the negro races, nor to bridge over the chasm 
which He has created, by devices born of fanaticism, the 
negroes, under white rule, have been afforded 'all the bless- 
ings of just and impartial laws. Convinced of the safety of 
their persons and property, they would become entirely con- 
tented, if their fears and the natural antipathy of race, v/ere 
not aroused by sectional agitators and fanatics. 

The object of this paper is to fix the responsibility of ^^re- 
construction" and its disastrous consequences, where they be- 
lons:, not to extol the intelliocent and honest rule of the white 
race. An estimate of what the State suffered by the alien and 
negro rule resulting from the plan of reconstruction unwisely 
and needlessly enforced, can be formed by contrasting the 
losses on the one hand, vv'ith the gains on the other. 

WHAT ABRAHAM LINCOLN TAUGHT. 

In clothing the negro with the weighty responsibilities of 
government when he was utterly unfit for them, the authors 
of the measure acted not only in defiance of all the lessons of 



344 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

history, but of the teachings of the statesman whom they 
professed to revere above all otliers. In his letter of March 
13th, 18(j4, to Michael ITahn, of Louisiana, President Lin- 
coln wrote : "You are about to have a convention, which will 
probably define the elective franchise. I have a suggestion 
for your private consideration, whether some of the colored 
people may not be let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent, 
and those who have fought gallantly in our 7'anks. . . . But 
this is only a suggestion," etc., etc. 

Mr. Lincoln, it will be seen, was not even clear in the opin- 
ion that even the "very intelligent negro," and the negro who 
had fought "gallantly" for his freedom, should be allowed to 
vote. He could not have tolerated the plan of admitting to 
suffrage the entire mass of ignorance and total incompetency 
as provided in the plan of " reconstruction." This is in accord 
with the well-matured opinion he had previously declared oa 
the subject of negro capacity for self-government. In 1858, 
he said: "I am not, and have never been, in favor of bring- 
ing about, in any form, the social and political equality of 
the white and the- black races. There is a physical difference 
which forbids them from living together on terms of social 
and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, 
while they do remain together, there must be the position of 
superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am 
in favor of having the superior position assigned to the whitest' 

Thus spoke Abraham Lincoln. But in the plan of "re- 
construction" forced upon the Southern States, the doctrine 
w4iich he declared was reversed, so far as it applied to Missis- 
sippi and other Southern States in which there was a majority 
of the "inferior" race. 

Nor could the illustrious prophet of Republicanism have 
tolerated the plan of turning the Southern States over to 

CAEPET-B AGGERS AND FEDERAL ARMY OFFICERS, 

who, taking advantage of their positions, secured their elec- 
tion to office, as in the case of General Ames. In a letter to 
G. F. Shipley, in relation to the Government of Louisiana, 
dated November 21st, 1862, Mr. Lincoln wrote : — 



RECONSTKUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 345 

"Mr. Kennedy has some apprehensions that federal officers, 
not citizens of Louisiana, may run as candidates for Congress 
in that State. In my view, there would be no possible object 
in such a course. . . . What we want is conclusive evi- 
dence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are willing to 
serve as members of Congress, and to swear to support the 
Constitution, and that other respectable citizens are willing to 
vote for them. To send a jxircel of Northern men here as 
Representatives, elected, as it icould be understood, and perhaps 
reatly so, at the point of the bayonet, ivould be disgraceful and 
outrageousj^ 

Directly opposed to these common-sense ideas of Abraham 
Lincoln was the policy of '^ reconstruction ^^ devised and en- 
forced after his death. It was even worse. It was a combi- 
nation of the two objectionable elements which he described — 
the negro and the carpet-bagger. We have seen that, under 
the government of Mississippi succeeding the provisional ad- 
ministration of Governor Sharkey, '^respectable citizens" 
were elected to Congress, '' willing to serve, and to swear to 
support the Constitution," by ''other respectable citizens," 
and were not admitted. Under the mongrel system eventu- 
ally adopted, " federal officers, not citizens," and "a parcel of 
Northern men," who had come as adventurers, were elected 
by the negro majority and admitted as Representatives and 
Senators. With language aptly applied. President Lincoln 
characterized such proceedings as "disgraceful and outrage- 
ous." Such men were not only sent to represent Mississippi 
in the national councils, but they were deputed to unite with 
the negroes to seize the State government, and to have and 
to hold it for all time. No wonder Rev. Henry Ward 
Beecher, one of the founders of the anti-slavery party, refer- 
ring to the overthrow of a similar conspiracy in another 
Southern State, indignantly proclaimed that it "was sheer 
madness to place the government of the State in the hands 
of ignorant negroes and vile carpet-baggers." Said ]\Ir. 
Beecher, "There never was such a system of taxation and 
general government. . . . Just consider the state of things ! 
The South has sunk ail its property in a war that had been 
bravely fought. Its young men were decimated, but they set 



346 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

themselves honestly and sublimely to work. They endured 
nobly. The class that was sufferint^ all these ills found itself 
suddenly s^overned by a majority that a little while ago were 
slaves. There never was such a subversion in the history of 
the white people. It was monstrous ! '^ 

THE LESSONS OF HISTORY. 

In assigning to the negro a part which he was wholly un- 
prepared to perform, and which he could not undertake with- 
out bringing calamity upon himself, as well as the whites, the 
parties to the plot acted not only in defiance of the admoni- 
tion of their idolized statesman, but of the warnings of history 
with its ^^ philososophy teaching by examj)le.'' The learned 
English historian, Allison, in describing the experiments of 
negro rule in the West Indies, says, it has demonstrated that 
the negro ^^ does not possess the qualities requisite to erect a 
fabric of civilized freedom." Mackenzie, in his work on St. 
Domingo, says, that '^ it is impossible to arrive at any other 
conclusion but that in the qualities requisite to create and ])er- 
petuate civilization, the African is decidedly inferior to the 
European race, and if any doubt could exist on this subject, 
it would be removed by the subsequent history, and present 
state of the Haytien government.'^ Sir Spencer St. John, 
formerly English minister resident at Hayti, in giving the 
result of his observations after personally knowing the 
Haytien Republic for twenty-fiv^e years, says : 

" I know what the black man is, and I have no hesitation 
in declaring that he is incapable of the art of government, and 
that to entrust him with framing and working the laws for 
our (the English) islands (West Indies) is to condemn those 
islands to inevitable ruin. What the negro may become after 
centuries of civilized education, I cannot tell, but what I know 
is, he is not fit to govern now.'' "In spite," he says "of all 
civilizing elements around the ITaytiens, there is a distinct 
tendency to sink into the state of an African tribe." After 
ninety years of trial, the negro government of Hayti is a 
mockery in which every form of tyranny and vice is blended, 
instead of progressing towards a higher civilization the 



EECONSTRUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. 347 

negroes, he says, *^are in a state of rajMcl decadence/' 
He quotes from another eminent historian of close observa- 
tion, CJames Anthony Fronde, : the declaration, that in the 
negro Republic of Hayti, *' there lies active and alive, the 
horrible revival of the West African superstition, the serpent 
worship, the child sacrifice, and the cannibalism.'' In his 
work, " The English in the West Indies," written after he 
had visited the Islands and investigated carefully, in order to 
form correct conclusions as to negro capacity for self-govern- 
ment, he endorses the opinion of Sir Spencer St. John, and 
says : 

'^ If for the sake of theory and to shirk responsibility these 
(negro) islands are left to govern themselves, the state of 
Hayti stands as a ghastly example of the condition in which 
they will inevitably fall. If we (the English) persist, we shall 
be sinning against light — the clearest light that was ever given 
in such aifalrs." He adds : 

*' One does not grudge the black man his property, nis 
freedom, his opportunity of advancing himself; one would 
wish him as free and prosperous as the fates, and his own ex- 
ertions can make him, with more and more means of raising 
himself to the white man's level. But left to himself and 
without the white man to lead him, he can never reach it. . . . 
We have a population to deal with, the majority of whom are 
an inferior race. Inferior, I am obliged to call them, 
because as yet they have shown no capacity to rise above the 
condition of their ancestors, except under European laws, 
European education, and European authority to keep them 
from war upon one another. . . . Give them independence, 
and in a few generations they will peel oif such civilization 
as they have as easily and as willingly as their coats and 
trousers." 

CONCLUDIK'G OBSERVATIONS. 

• It was to this same inferior race comprising a large majority 
of the whole people that the authors of the '' reconstruction" 
policy, wickedly but, under an over-ruling Providence, vainly 
endeavored to commit the destinies of Mississippi. It Is rea- 
sonable to infer that upon the ordinary questions of govern- 



348 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

mental policy the white people of the state would have 
differed and ranged themselves under the opposing poHtical 
banners, but when the " race issue/' with its consequences of life 
and death to their liberty and civilization, was needlessly and 
cruelly thrust upon them, they were forced into a solid, com- 
pact organization in obedience to the higher law of self-preser- 
vation which God in His wisdom has instituted ; and this 
organization they will maintain so long as the cause which 
made it inevitable, remains. 

Candor requires that this should be said. A part of the 
" reconstruction " plan has expended its force. Other parts 
having been engrafted upon the Constitution of the United 
States, have remained to plague not the inventor only, but 
both the white and the negro races in the South. The blunder 
must now be clear to the authors themselves. It is not the 
purpose of the writer to ask them to retrace their steps and 
undo their folly, but may we not hope that under the influence 
of the sober, second thought, they will permit us to control 
our domestic affairs as nominated in the bond of union as it 
now stands, according to our own judgment, and to take care 
of ourselves as best we may. 

Etiielbert Barksdale. 

Jackson, Mississippi, Marcli 10th, 1890. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 

WHAT is known as the ordinance of secession, by which 
Texas was separated from the United States, was ])assed 
in a convention composed of delegates elected by the 
people of Texas, on the 1st day of February, A. D. 1861, and 
soon thereafter Texas became one of the Confederate states. 
In the war that followed between the states, it is no more than 
just to say that Texas discharged her full duty to her sister 
states of the South ; but when the war closed, aside from the 
loss of property in slaves, the wealth of the state had not 
been so much impaired as it had been in the other Southern 
states. She had not suffered devastation from invading troops, 
and those of her citizens who were not in the army, had pur- 
sued their avocations without disturbance. The earth had 
brought forth abundantly, so much so, as not only to supply 
the demand for home consumption, but to furnish large sun- 
plies for those who were in the field, \yhen hostilities ceased, 
large quantities of cotton remained unsold in the hands of the 
planters, and at that time commanded an unprecedented high 
price. Farming acreage had been largely increased by those, who 
with their slaves, had fled from the ravages of the war in 
other states, and had found refuge in Texas. The great live 
stock interests in the state had prospered, and horses and 
cattle were easily converted into cash, at remunerative prices. 
In comparison with the other states of the South, Texas was 
in a prosperous condition, and soon attracted the attention of 
those adventurers who everywhere became known as '^ carpet- 
baggers. '' To them Texas was indeed "a land flowing with 
milk and honey.'^ They sent no one out to spy out the land, 
but came themselves. Their name was legion. Their pur- 

349 



350 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

pose was to despoil and plunder. The military government 
which dominated the people during tJie greater part of the re- 
construction period, furnished them every opportunity to carry- 
out their thievish purposes. During that period the offices of 
the state, from the judge on the bench to the constable of a 
beat, were largely composed of this class of men, and it is but 
the plain truth to say, that no more ignorant, incompetent, 
vicious and corrupt men have ever been permitted by any 
government, to hold official position. To their unparalleled 
meanness may be attributed much of the wrong and oppres- 
sion that was inflicted upon the people of this state. tJnder 
Confederate authority Texas was a part of what was known 
as the " Trans-Mississippi Department,'' and at the termina- 
tion of actual hostilities it was under the command of Lieut. 
Gen. E. Kirby Smith, who through Generals Buckner and 
Price, surrendered the Department to General Canby, of the 
United States army, at New Orleans, on the 27th day of May, 
1865. On the 17th day of June, A. D. 1865, Andrew John- 
son, President of the United States, issued his proclamation 
appointing Andrew J. Hamilton provisional Governor of 
Texas, whose duty it was stated in the proclamation to be "to 
prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary and 
proper for convening a convention composed of delegates to 
be chosen by that portion of the people of said state who are 
loyal to the United States, and no other; for the purpose of 
altering or amending the* Constitution thereof; and with au- 
thority to exercise ^vithin the limits of said state all the pow- 
ers necessary and proper to enable the loyal people of the 
state of Texas to restore said state to its constitutional rela- 
tions to the Federal Government, and to present such a Re- 
publican form of state government as will entitle the state to 
the guaranty of the United States therefor, and its people to 
the protection of the United States against invasion, insurrec- 
tion and domestic violence." 

Governor Hamilton was a native of Alabama, but had 
been a citizen of Texas for many years. He was in many 
respects a remarkable man, and had been more than once 
elected to high official position by the people of Texas, and 
at the time of secession he was a Representative from Texas 



KECONSTEUCTION IN TEXAS. 351 

in the Congress of the United States. Hamilton was a man 
of generous impulses, and of extraordinary intellectual power, 
but was erratic and unstable in his opinions. At one time he 
was greatly admired by the people of Texas, and for years 
before the war they delighted in calling him ^^ Colossal 
Jack,'^ which was but an a|)propriate indication of his intel- 
lect and great oratorical ability. He had opposed secession, 
and shortly after the commencement of hostilities, had placed 
himself within the lines of the Union forces, where he re- 
mained until the war was over, but at no time did he take 
up arms against the South. Some complaint was made 
because of his delay in calling a convention to form a Con- 
stitution. But after having re-organized the state by 
appointing all county, district and state officers except Judges 
of the Supreme Court, he, on the 17th day of November, 
A.D. 1865, issued his proclamation for the election of dele- 
gates to a convention, which assembled on the 7th day of 
February, 1866, and framed a Constitution that was sub- 
mitted to the voters of the state, ratified, and the officers of 
the state therein provided for, elected on the 25th day of 
June, A.D. 1866. 

Notwithstanding, many of the citizens of the state were 
then under political disabilities and could not vote, the Dem- 
ocratic candidate for Governor, Hon. James W. Throckmor- 
ton, received 49,277 votes, and his opponent, Hon. E. M. 
Pease, a Republican, received only 12,168 votes. Governor 
Throckmorton had lived in Texas from his boyhood, and had 
served his state for many years in the capacity of a legislator, 
and was distinguished for his ability, patriotism, purity of 
character and unflinching courage. Pie was opposed to the 
secession of the Southern states from the Federal Union, and 
had exerted his influence to prevent it, and as a delegate in 
the secession convention in 1861, voted against the passage of 
the ordinance which declared the separation of Texas from 
the Union. But while he looked upon secession as impolitic 
and ruinous, he looked with scarcely less dread upon that 
doctrine which asserted an undefined and unlimited power 
in the general government to use its military force against 
the states, and he followed the fortunes of a majority 'of 



352 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

his fellow-citizens, and shared with them the fate of the 
conflict. 

He was inaugurated and entered upon the discharge of his 
duties as Governor, on the 9th day of August, 1866, and no 
man in that high position was ever surrounded by more em- 
barrassing circumstances, or confronted with greater difficul- 
ties. He had a full appreciation of his situation, and clearly 
perceived the obstacles that he had to overcome, as is mani- 
fest from the following passage in his inaugural address, 
viz. : 

"At a time like the present, when we have just emerged 
"from the most terrible conflict known to modern times, with 
"homes made dreary and desolate by the heavy hand of war; 
"the people impoverished under public and private debts; 
"the great industrial energies of the country sadly depressed ; 
"occuiiyino;, in some respects, the position of a state of the 
" Federal Union, and in others, the condition of a conquered 
"province, exercising only such privileges as the conqueror in 
"his wisdom may allow; the loyalty of the people to the 
"general Government doubted; their integrity questioned; 
"their honest aspirations for peace and restoration disbelieved, 
"maligned and traduced, with a constant misapprehension of 
"their most innocent actions and intentions; with a frontier, 
"many hundreds of miles in extent, being desolated by a 
" murderous and powerful enemy ; our devoted frontiersmen 
" filling bloody graves, their property given to the flames or 
"carried off as booty, their little ones murdered, and their 
"wives and daughters carried into captivity more terrible 
"than death, and reserved for tortures such as savage cruelty 
"and lust can alone invent; nnprotected by the Government* 
"we support; with troops quartered in the interior where 
"there is peace and quiet; unwilling to send citizens to de- 
"fend the suffering border for fear of arousing unjust suspi- 
"cions as to the motive ; with a heavy debt created before the 
"late war, and an empty treasury; with an absolute necessity 
"for a change in the laws to adapt ourselves to the new order 
"of things, and embarrassments in every part of our internal 
"affairs; under such circumstances, with such surroundings, 
"when so much depends upon prudence and so great an 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 353 

"amount of patriotism and intelligence is required, I feel 
"sadly oppressed with the duties which lie before me.'^ 

But, notwithstanding the almost insuperable difficulties that 
stood in his way, the Governor, assisted by the Legislature, 
went bravely to work to bring order out of chaos, and to 
restore proper relations between the state and Federal Govern- 
ment. The convention that had framed the Constitution, and 
which was composed of men of all political parties, had done 
everything required of it to facilitate the restoration of such 
relations. The abolition of slavery was recognized ; the debt 
created by the war was repudiated ; the ordinance of secession 
was declared null and void, the right of Texas to secede from 
the Union renounced, and the permanency of the Union and 
supremacy of the laws of the United States declared. Pro- 
vision was made for the future education of the ne2:roes ; for 
the equal preservation of their liv^es, liberty and property, and 
for the bestowal of other rights and privileges upon them ; 
and the right to vote would have been extended to them had 
it then been required by the general Government ; for our 
people felt that they had submitted these matters to the 
arbitrament of the sword ; that it had been decided ao^ainst 
them, and as brave men it was their duty to submit. 

The Governor recommended the enactment of such laws as 
would in good faith carry out the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion and ordinances of the Convention, and the Legislature 
promptly complied with his suggestions. So desirous was 
Governor Throckmorton that everything should be done by 
the Legislature to bring about proper relations between the 
state of Texas and the General Government, that on the 29th 
day of October, a.d. 1866, he addressed a telegram to Presi- 
dent Johnson, and made inquiry if he could offer any sucrges- 
tion for further action on the part of the Legislature of Texas 
that would facilitate restoration ; to which the President re- 
plied as follows : 

Washington, D. C, October 30th, 1866. 
Governor THROcK:vroRTON : 

Your telegram of the 29th inst. received. I have notliing to sug- 
gest, further than urg'ng upon the Legislature to make all laws involving 
civil rights as complete as possible, so as to extend equal and exact justice 
to all persons, -svithout regard to color, if it has not been done.. "We should 

23 



354 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

not despair of the Eepublic. My faith is strong, my confidence unlimited 
in the wisdom, providence, virtue, intelli,2;cnce and magnanimity of the 
great mass of tlie people, and that their ultimate decision will be uninflu- 
enced by passion and j)rejudice, engendered by the recent civil war ; ibr 
the complete restoration of tlie Union by the admission of loyal J^enators 
and Representatives from all the states to the respective Houses of the Con- 
gress of the United States. Signed, 

Andrew Johnson. 

In his efforts to restore proper relations with the General 
Government, Governor Throckmorton was not without hope 
that he would be sustained by the sentiment of the Northern 
people, as was indicated in his message to the Legislature, 
wherein he said : 

" Notwithstanding tlie difficulties which beset us, and the 
untoward direction given to measures proposed for the<=ett]e- 
ment of grave questions growing out of the late nnliajipy 
contest between the Government and the Southern States ; 
and notwithstanding the measures so proposed have received 
the sanction of the National Legislature, yet, my fellow-citi- 
zens, with proper conduct on our part, I do not despair of re- 
ceiving liberal and generous treatment from our Northern 
countrymen. '^ 

He never doubted, and never had cause to doubt, that 
his own people were desirous of performing all their obligations 
to the General Government, and this he declared in his in- 
augural address in the following emphatic language : 

'^ Having been a resident of Texas for a quarter of a cen- 
tury ; familiarly acquainted with all her prominent citizens ; 
having served in the councils of the state for fifteen years, and 
shared the dangers and toils of the late war with her soldiers ; 
recently mingled much with the people and corresponded with 
them in every section of the state within the past few months, 
I claim to know something of the actual condition of affairs, 
and I do not hesitate to declare that the great body of the 
people are earnestly desirous of performing all their obliga- 
tions to the General Government. A people who have won 
the. respect and admiration of the world for their chivalry, 
high daring and fortitude will not be doubted by generous and 
brave spirits when they assert their loyalty." 

It was, indeed, true that the people, after the exhaustion 



EECOXSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 355 

caused by four years of war, were in* favor of a restoration 
of law and order that would give security to life and prop- 
•erty. They were anxious to begin the work of rebuilding 
their shattered and ruined fortunes, and realized that a con- 
tinuance of a condition of hostility to the Federal Govern- 
ment would be fatal to their hopes and plans. But events, 
which rapidly followed the utterance by Governor Throck- 
morton of these words of cheer and hope, painfully demon- 
strated that the people of the North were not ready to resume 
fraternal relations with the people of the South. Perhaps 
there had not been sufficient '* cooling time." In spite of 
State Constitutions, and legislative enactments evincing the 
honest desire of the people of the Southern States to accept 
in good faith the results of the war, and to resume their rela- 
tions with the General Government, the people of the North- 
ern States doubted their loyalty to the Government of the 
United States, and were especially apprehensive that fair 
treatment would not be given to the negro. They regarded 
crime in the South not as an excrescence of society, but as the 
indirect act of Southern society itself, and deemed it right to 
assume tutelage over the people of the South. 

The breach that occurred between President Johnson and his 
party, which culminated in the attempt made to impeach him, 
only intensified the bitterness of feeling at the North against 
the people of the South, but in less than nine months after 
the formation of a State Government in Texas resulted in the 
passage of the reconstruction laws, and subverted civil gov- 
ernment, not only in Texas, but in all the Southern States, 
and in lieu thereof erected a military despotism. 

But before the enactment of the reconstruction laws, Texas 
was in the condition described by her Governor as "occupy- 
ing, in some respects, the position of a state of the Federal 
Union, and in others, the condition of a conquered province"; 
and this anomalous condition of things was a prolific source 
of trouble and embarrassment in the administration of state 
affairs. As has been shown, a government for the state, 
essentially republican in its nature, and the Constitution of 
which had provided for the changes brought about by the 
war, had been organized in due form, but the Government of 



356 WHY THE SOLID SOUTfl ? 

• . 
the United States, under the pretence of collecting property 
that had belonged to the Confederate States, kept within the 
State a body of soldiers, who were stationed at diiferent 
points, and some of whom, in small and separate detachments, 
were kept moving from one place to another. 

The "Freedmen's Bureau" had its officers and agents 
everywhere throughout the state, and in many, if not most 
instances, they had a military force subject to their orders. 
These officers and agents of the '' Freedmen's Bureau '^ were, 
for the most part, a set of unmitigated rascals. Sent to pro- 
tect the negro against the cruelty and rapacity of his em- 
ployer, they managed to pluck from him his hard-earned 
dollars, and not unfrequently they were in the pay of the 
employer, who, from necessity, submitted to be blackmailed, 
rather than be subjected to constant and unnecessary annoy- 
ance. The presence of the sokliers for the enforcement of 
law in a time of profound peace, is revolting to an American, 
and at this unhappy period the conduct of the sohliers was 
very often of such character as to exasperate the citizens. 
Where officers were in command who were possessed of a 
proper sense of self-respect, and knew how to perform their 
duties, but little, if any, trouble occurred. But, unfor- 
tunately, such men were not always in command, and too fre- 
quently men were in authority who sought to display tlieir 
love of country and heroism by oppressing the helpless. 
Such conduct not unfrequently produced trouble. Many of 
our citizens suffered in person and in property at the hands 
of licentious and irresponsible men who wore the uniform 
and marched under the flag of the United States. One of 
the most flagrant acts of this character was the burning of 
the town of Brenham, on the night of the 7th of September, 
A. D. 1866. It excited great indignation throughout the 
state. The Legislature was in session at the time, and the 
Governor very properly and prudently called their attention 
to the matter. 

In compliance with the recommendation of the Governor, 
the Legislature sent a committee to Brenham fully authorized 
to obtain the facts, and from the report made by said com- 
mittee we learn that on the night of the 7th of September, 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 357 

1866, a party of United States soldiers took possession of a 
negro ball that was in progress in the honse of a colored man 
in the town of Brenham. The conduct of the soldiers 
became so indecent as to cause the negroes to abandon tlieir 
festivities and seek their homes. Infuriated because the ball 
had ceased, they sought to inflict vengeance upon some of the 
negro men who had helped to close it. They pursued one of 
them to a house where were assembled a number of white 
ladies and gentlemen and within their hearing, in the most 
profane and obscene language, abused the negro. Upon 
being informed by one of the gentleman that ladies were 
present, and requested not to use improper language, they 
drew their pistols and transferred their abuse from the negro 
to the white men, and cursed them as d — n rebels, and 
threatened to shoot them, when two of the soldiers were shot, 
one being seriously and the other slightly wounded. The 
soldiers then retired to their camp, taking their wounded 
companion with them, but during the night they returned and 
fired the town. It was indisputably proved that the sokliers 
set fire to the town. The evidence showed that the soldiers 
who committed this outrage acted Imder the orders of their 
commanding officer, or that he connived at their conduct. 
When an officer of the state went to their camp with the 
authority of the law, to arrest some of the guilty parties, he 
was informed by the officer in command that the soldiers he 
wanted had the night before deserted. They certainly had 
been spirited away and have never been tried for their crime. 
Quite a number of houses were consumed, and property to 
the value of one hundred and thirty-one thousand dollars 
was destroyed. The loss was sustained and divided among 
about twenty-five persons, all of whom were of moderate 
means and not able to sustain it. The United States has 
never paid one dollar of this loss. The burning of Brenham 
was exceptional only in the amount of property that was de- 
stroyed ; certainly not in perfidy and wickedness. Numbers 
of our citizens were murdered by the soldiers of the United 
States, and, in some instances, were deliberately shot down by 
them in the presence of their wives and children. In this 
diabolical manner were W. A. Burns and his sou Dallas mur- 



358 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

dered in Gaudaloupe County. From the testimony taken 
before the coroner at an inquest held upon the bodies of the 
deceased, we copy the evidence of Miss Sarah L. Burns, the 
daui^hter of W. A. Burns, and the sister of Dallas Burns, 
who was a witness to the horrid deed, and whose testimony 
was abundantly corroborated by other evidence. After being 
duly sworn, she testified as follows : 

Q. State what you know about the killing ot your father, 
W. A. Burns, and your brother, Dallas Burns. 

A. Between midnight and day on Sunday morning, March 
31, 1807, there came a body of men and surrounded the 
house of W. A. Burns and demanded the surrender of the 
house and all that was in it, in the name of the United 
States. My brother Dallas told them to wait until morning 
and they would surrender. They then tried to open tiie 
door, and ray brother Matt told them that if they broke 
open the door, that he would shoot them. They then said 
that if they did not surrender they would set fire to the 
house. They then told my father that they would giv^e him 
until they could count twenty to surrender, and if he did not 
surrender in that time, that twenty would fire into the house, 
and forty would remain. AVhen they counted nineteen my 
father told them to stop. They then told my father that they 
would give him until they could count five to surrender, and 
if he did not surrender in that time, they would set fire to 
the house. They then counted four, and my father told 
them to stop, that he would surrender. My father then 
called for the captain, and told him to come in and act like 
a gentleman, and tell what they wanted. At that time one 
of the party said, '^ Here is the captain," and called to the 
captain and said that Burns wished to see him. The cap- 
tain came in and several other men at the same time. ^ly 
father tried to keep back the crowd, and some one of the 
party said, *' Burns, you shall not be hurt." They then re- 
marked that there were four gentlemen in here, and asked if 
Dallas Burns was present, and said to him, "Step out"; 
and then said, '^ Matt Burns, are you here?" and told him 
to '^step out," and at the same time they commenced firing. 
When they commenced firing I jumped up and ran to the 



KECOXSTRUCTIOX IN TEXAS. 359 

door and commenced screaming. After the firing had ceased 
they walked out of the house and were hxughing, and about 
that tune there was another shot fired, and I heard some one 
say, ^' Oh, my son Johnny, are you hurt ? ^^ 

Dallas Burns made a dying statement, in which he said, 
"A body of men came to the house and demanded a surren- 
der. This we refused for some time. The captain then 
came to the door and talked with father, and told him he did 
not wish to hurt him, but merely to arrest my brother Matt 
and myself, under military authority. Upon this we sur- 
rendered. The captain came in and made a motion to his 
men, and a portion of their crowd, say five or six, came into 
the house and cocked their guns. The captain called for 
Dallas Burns. I hesitated, and was rather slow about 
coming out, and the captain said, ^Step out, damn you, and 
take it, for you have it to do,' when I stepped out in the 
light and they fired upon me." 

After the perpetration of this atrocious murder, the officer 
who Avas in command of the soldiers who did it, issued a 
proclamation in which he denounced citizens of the county as 
" rebels '' and " thieves/^ and declared that for the commission 
of offenses, ^' No quarter should be givenJ^ 

It gives no pleasure to record these instances of cruelty 
and outrage that were perpetrated by the troops of the United 
States upon citizens of our State, but they serve to show the 
dangers always incident to, if not inseparable from the 
exercise of military power. Let no one suppose that the in- 
stances given were isolated cases of oppression that might 
occur under any government, however good. They were of such 
frequent occurrence as to excite the alarm of good people 
throughout the state. No Constitutional barriers stood in 
the way of military authority, and it seemed to hav^e no 
respect for the rights and privileges that have always been 
held sacred and inviolable by American citizens. Any good 
citizen was subject to arrest and imprisonment who had 
incurred the ill-will of some negro, or the animosity of some 
degraded white man, who, perhaps, had been a blatant seces- 
sionist, but for puj'poses of gain, denied his record and loudly 
proclaimed that he had ever been devoted to the Union. 



360 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

Governor Throckmorton liad much correspondence witli the 
military authorities in Texas in regard to the various and 
many acts of oppression which our citizens liad to en(hire, and 
did everything that could be done for their relief. In one of 
his letters to General Sheridan, he says : 

^' I know some of the veriest rogues and scoundrels, who 
to protect themselves, have applied to the military, and 
asserted that they were in danger because of their Unionism, 
when in truth their Unionism was never heard of until after 
the surrender " This was unfortunately true in too many 
instances, as is known by those who then lived in Texas. The 
war had brought about a very upheaval of society, and had 
thrown to the surface the worst element it contained, and this 
condition of affairs was recognized by the negro when he 
said, "The bottom rail has got on top." 

But nothing could stop the despotism of hate, and all 
efforts were unavailing to stay the heavy hand of military 
power. The reign of terror continued, and outrages upon 
our citizens were of almost daily occurrence. It would re- 
quire too much space to give an account of all the oppressive 
acts of the military, and the wrongs that were inflicted upon 
individuals in the state. The military authorities ])rofessed 
to abhor crime, and were ever ready to excuse themselves for 
their arbitrary conduct, because of the necessity of suppress- 
ing it, and yet with unblushing effrontery asked Governor 
Throckmorton that he at once extend his pardon to two hun- 
dred and twenty-seven negro crmvicts in the state peniten- 
tiary. These negroes were guilty of almost every offense 
known to our criminal laws. It was, as a matter of course 
assumed, that they had not been fairly tried, and that theirs 
conviction was the result of prejudice, and a disposition on 
the part of those who tried them to deny them fair treat- 
ment. 

The absurdity of this assumption was shown by the Gov- 
ernor in his reply to the application, and as said reply gives a 
true statement of the treatment of colored persons charged 
with crime, accorded to them by our law, and the manner of 
its enforcement by our courts, I will, notwithstanding its 
length, give it in full, viz : 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 361 

Executive Department of Texas, Austin, March 18, 1867. 
Brigadier-General Oakes, Commanding U. S. Forces, 

Austin, Texas. 

General : — I have examined carefully tlie communication of W. H. St. 
Chiir, Inspector B. R. F. & A. L., addressed to Lieut. I. F. Kirk ham, A. A. 
General, on the 26th ult., concerning: the freed people who are convicts in 
the State Penitentiary, together with the accompanying papers which were 
placed in my hands a few days since by you. In answer to the suggestions 
contained in the communication referred to, and the re({uest made tlirough 
you by Major General Griffin, that a pardon be granted the convicts al- 
luded to (numbering in all 227), I most respectfully submit, that my dutv 
as the Chief Magistrate of this state, having in charge a due enforcement 
of the laws and the well-being of the people of every class and color, pre- 
cludes the indiscriminate action on my part that is desired. It will be seen 
by reference to the report made by the Inspector, that these pei'sons are 
confined for various offenses, many of them of the gravest character, in- 
cluding murder, rape, assault Avith intent to commit rape, arson, robbery, 
burglary, assaults with intent to murder, aiding prisoners in jail to escape, 
and theft. The great majority are for theft, and in many instances for 
stealing small amounts. But it should be kept in mind that the same law 
was applicable and operated alike upon Avhite persons, and that a party is 
just as guilty of crime should the ofiense be for the stealing of one cent as 
for one million, though the punishment is greater or less in proportion to 
the amount stolen. 

It will be observed that in almost every case the conviction has been for 
the shortest period of time allowed by law. For your information and that 
of the authorities who are charged with the well-being of the freed people, 
I will state, that under our laws, no person, white or black, can be prose- 
cuted in our courts for a criminal offense without having counsel to conduct 
their defense. If they are too poor to employ counsel, or do not do so, it is 
the duty of the court to appoint counsel for them, unless such party should 
see proper to make their own defense. And I mention it as a fact honora- 
ble to the judiciary of this state, that it is the general custom in all such 
cases, to appoint the most able and experienced members of the bar. I 
venture the assertion with great confidence, that not a single convict was 
tried without having reliable and respectable counsel to defend flie case, 
and in no instance where a reasonable showing was made that witnesses 
material to the defense were absent, have they been hurried or forced into 
trial without them. 

To show how tender the courts have been of the rights of this class of 
persons, I will mention a fact which should be known in connection with 
the case of the freedman, Richard Perkins. In this case Perkins was in- 
dicted for murder, and able counsel was assigned him by the court. He 
desired to enter the plea of guilty, and so expressed himself in court ; but 
the state having all the witnesses present that had been subpoenaed in the 
case, the court would not permit him to do so. 

I have been witness repeatedly to the exertions made by counsel thus 
assigned in defense of such persons, and in some cases I know of^ acquittals 
that unquestionably would have been convictions had the parties on trial 
been of the white race. 



362 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

To the ears of persons who have been taught to believe that the people 
of the South are exasperated with, and- wish to oppress the neG:ro, this may 
appear strange, yet it is true. The great mass of our people — and I am 
quite sure the same sentiment has due weigiit with the judiciary — feel a 
sympathy for the negro, and as jurors, make a due allowance for his situa- 
tion, and tlie temptations by which he has been beset in conseiiuence of 
sudden emancipation. I would not be understood as asserting tiuit this is 
true of every person, or every section, but it is tiie general feeling enter- 
tained by a great majority of our people. Nor would I be understood as 
asserting" that in every case where negroes have been convicted, tliat a due 
regard lias been been had for their situation and ignorance, nor that strict 
and impartial justice has in ev^ery instance been meted out to them. 

I deem it proper in this connection, as controverting the general charge 
made against Oiir peo|)le of hostility to the negro, and of the same implied 
cliarge in Inspector St. Clair's statement, that in quite a number of cases 
memorials have been addressed to me, signed by the judges, oflicers of the 
law, members of the bar and citizens, asking pardons for freed men who 
have been convicted of various offenses, including homicides and other of- 
fenses, down to misdemeanors. (Juite a number of pardons have been 
granted by me, including some of the lists sent up from the penitentiary. 
In every instance but one, ihe white persr)ns making the applications for 
pardon, have paid the fees of officers and costs of court, amounting usually 
from thirty to tifty dollars, and sometimes more in felony cases. Some pe- 
titions have been sent to me, signed by most respectable citizens, asking 
pardon for freedmen that I have not granted, because I did not think the 
cases presented came within the rule where executive clemency should be 
exercised. 

I would most respectfully remind the authorities that the class of freefl- 
men now confined in the penitentiary, as a general rule, is the most vicious 
and dishonest of the entire freed population of the state. And instead of 
astonishment being expressed at the number, I think it speaks well for the 
people themselves, and is a contradiction to the charge of white oppression 
that the number should be no greater than it is. 

At the time of the surrender, the black population of Texas could not 
have been less than four hundred thousand. Since then a great reduction 
has occurred on account of the numbers who have returned to Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Missouri and other states. Taking a period of two years, under 
the circumstances when there was no government of any kind in the State 
for several months, with tlie country deuioralized by war, and with such a 
large number of the slaves suddenly emancipated, it is remarkable indeed, 
that a greater number of crimes were not committed, and a much greater 
nmnber of convictions had. In looking over the statements of the con- 
victs, I have been impressed with the falsehoods uttered by the convicts, 
and evidently relied upon by the agents, which should be apparent to any 
one acquainted with affairs in this state. Some killed hogs, others stole 
bacon, etc., bacause as they said, they were hungry, and their employers did 
not furnish rations. The great effort to procure and retain labor, if fair 
dealins: was out of the question, makes such statements as these very im- 
probable ; nor do 1 believe them true. Quite a number acknowledge to the 
takin;; of the articles charged, but render as an excuse that the parties from 
whom they took them were in their debt ; others made mistakes, and not 



KECOXSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 363 

a few said they did not do the stealing, but the property was found in their 
possession, etc. It will afford me much pleasure to co-operate with the 
authorities of the Bureau in ascertaining the facts of any individual case 
and whenever any reasonable cause can be shown why executive clemency 
should be exercised, it will be freely and cheerfully extended. But these 
facts must come from the officers of the court where the parties were tried, 
or from citizens of respectability who are acquainted with the previous 
characters of the convicts. I would say further that it is not the value or 
amount of the articles stolen that should influence interference in these 
cases. If the offender was of reasonably good character and habits previ- 
ous to conviction, then it should have due weight; but if such character had 
been bad and vicious it should not be regarded. It i^ certainly a novel 
proceeding, and I cannot believe it is justifiable, that an application of this 
character should be based upon the statement of the convicts. The course 
pursued by the Inspector in raising in the minds .of the convicts an expec- 
tation of release is, in my candid judgment reprehensible and cannot fail 
to prove mischievous ; and were I to release them would prove of the great- 
est injury to them. It would be regarded as a license, and be an incentive 
to them to commit other offenses. I trust in the future the Chief of the 
Bureau will permit no further interference of this kind with the municipal 
and police regulations of this state. 

I must be allowed also to remark, that the statements and implied cen- 
sures of the Inspector, St. Clair, towards the courts, people and authorities 
of this state, are neither courteous nor respectful ; nor are they warranted 
by facts. 

I cannot close this communication without stating to the officers of the 
Bureau that I will, at all times and under all circumstances, affi)rd them 
all the aid in my power to secure every right to the freed people of this 
state that is guaranteed by the laws of the state and general government, 
and will be always ready to extend to these people the broadest mantle of 
mercy and charity, where it can be done with a due res^ard to their inter- 
ests and a just respect for the interests of the whole body politic. 

With sentiments of great respect, I am, General, 

Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

J. W. Throckmorton, Governor of Texas. 

No jiiat man can find fault with Governor Throckmorton 
for refusing to pardon these convicts, and yet there is no 
doubt but that his refusal to pardon them was one of the rea- 
sons that induced General Sheridan to believe him to be '' an 
impediment to the reconstruction of Texas under the law." 
It may be that General Sheridan had another reason for 
believing Governor Throckmorton to be an impediment to 
reconstruction. The Governor, as was his duty, had applied to 
General Sheridan to place troops upon the frontier to protect to 
our people from the depredations of Indians, and General 
Sheridan, in reply to this application, said : " Tliere were 
more casualties occurring from outrages perpetrated upon 



364 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? ^ 

Union men and freedmen in the interior of this state than 
occurs from Indian depredations upon the frontier." Governor 
Throckmorton replied to this statement made by General 
Sheridan, and said : ''General, this is truly a startling state- 
ment, and I exceedingly regret that you have been so unfa- 
vorably impressed with the general cliaracter of the people of 
Texas, and that your information should be so incorrect. 
1 am frank to admit that many violations of law occur in the 
interior of Texas; but that these things are the result of 
rebellious sentiment among the people, or that the outrages 
committed in consequence of this rebellious feeling are far in 
exce3s of the Indian depredations upon the frontier, I must 
solemly and emphatically deny. You have heard one side of 
the story. Perhaps if the people or authorities of Texas had 
been as persistent and mendacious in their version of these 
affairs to you and your officers, as have been the howling crowd 
of canting, lying scamps, who were doing everything in their 
power to make trouble and produce alienation of feeling 
betwen countrymen, you might not think so badly of us. I 
most positively assert that, of all the outrages occurring in 
Texas since the surrender, but the fewest possible number 
have originated out of the feeling alluded to by you." 

This was a flat contradiction of the statement that General 
Sheridan had made, and it possibly irritated him. But this 
was not all. Gov. Throckmorton, in replying to the charge 
made by Gen. Sheridan, that the people of Texas had perpe- 
trated such numerous outrages upon Union men and Freedmen, 
saw fit to call the General's attention to the fact that much 
crime in Texas had been perpetrated by Federal soldiers in 
his command. For in another place in his letter, he said : 

"Suffer me to say that, of the robberies committed upon 
freedmen in Texas, a great number of them have been by 
soldiers in your command, and others who have been dis- 
charged, or deserted from it. It is undoubtedly true that the 
negroes in the localities of the troops are more afraid of im])0- 
sition from the soldiers than from any other quarter. Many 
of the outrages that have occurred in Texas have been per- 
petrated by deserters and discharged soldiers from the army 
of the United States. A band of seventeen or eighteen in 



KECOXSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 365 

one body went to general robbing, and are now in the state 
penitentiary. Another band of deserters from the 6th cavalry 
went directly North through the state from Waco, and com- 
mitted every species of outrage. Other squads who were dis- 
charged, traveled through the state on their way North, some- 
times repi'esenting a Quartermaster and Commissary and giv- 
ing receipts, and in other places taking by force.^^ 

This probably was the ''straw which broke the camel's 
back'' and in the opinion of Gen. Sheridan, made Throck- 
morton an " impediment." 

The reconstruction act of March 2nd, 1867, declared that 
no legal State Governments, or adequate protection for life or 
property existed in the states of Virginia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, 
Florida, Texas and Arkansas, and divided said states into 
military districts, and subjected them to the military authority 
of the United States, and Louisiana and Texas were made the 
5th military district. Said act in section 6 also provides; 
*' That until the people of said Rebel States shall be, by law, 
admitted to representation in the Congress of the TJnited 
States, any civil government which may exist therein shall be 
deemed provisional only, and in all respects subject to the par- 
amount authority of the United States, at any time to abolish, 
modify, control or supersede the same." 

Thus was the state government that had been organized by the 
people of Texas at the instance of, and by the authority of, 
the Federal Government, subordinated to the military author- 
ity of the United States, and he whom the people of Texas 
had elected Governor of their state became subject to the or- 
der of an officer of the United States army. 

This was humiliating to Gov^ Throckmorton, and it was as 
much £0 to the people of Texas. With the hope of being able 
to serve his people, and to some extent alleviate their situation, 
he sacrificed all personal feeling, and devoted himself to their 
interests. He at once placed himself in communication with 
Gen. P. H. Sheridan, who had been placed in command of 
the 5th military district, and signified his willingness to co- 
operate with him in the reorganization of the state. He wrote 
to General Sheridan as follows : 



366 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Executive Office, Austin, March 30, 1867. 
Major-General Sheridan, Commantling Louisiana and Texas, 

New Orleans. 
General : — Your telegram of yesterday in answer to mine of the 27th, 
informing me that Brevet Major General Charles Griffin has direction of 
the details of the reorganization of this state, is received. I think I am 
justified in the statement that the people of Texas will participate in the 
reorganization with great unanimity. While the people with very little 
division of sentiment regard the terms imposed as onerous and oppresi;ive, 
yet they are determined to abide the laws and comply with them. As the 
chief magistrate I shall lend a prompt assistance when in my power, to 
carry into eflbct the laws referred to, and shall advise the people to jjartici- 
pate in the reorganization with good feeling and to the extent of securing 
to the newly enfranchised class the freest exercise of the privilege conferred. 
1 have such assurances from various parts of the state, and from most intelli- 
gent and respectable citizens, that I apprehend General GriflSn will have 
but little difficulty in thedisthargeof his delicate labors. The people will 
register promptly, when called upon to avail themselves of all the privi- 
leges allowed. 1 I'eel confident in tiie liope that yourself and General Griffin 
■will extend to the people every facility possible, in order that they may 
comply with the requirements of the law. I am, General, 

Very respectfully. 
Your obedient servant, 
J. W. Throckmorton. 

The foregoing letter was a manly acceptance of the situa- 
tion, and notwithstanding the increased embarrassment of 
his position, caused by the action of Congress, Governor 
Throckmorton continued to discharge the duties of his office 
with the same energy and ability that had ever characterized 
his official conduct. Never for a moment did he cease to 
have the law rigidly, but impartially enforced in every 
county, and but for the intermeddling of the military, peace 
would have prevailed througliout the state. He was ever 
ready to assist the military authorities in the discharge of 
their legitimate duties, and no request for aid of any sort 
that would facilitate reorganization of the state was made of 
him that he did not most cheerfully give. But at no time 
did he fail to protest against their usurpation of power and 
do his best to protect his people from cruelty and oppression. 
It was his fearless efforts to protect his peo]^le that led to his 
removal. On the 30th day of July, 1867, General Sheridan, 
who was in command of the Fifth Military District, issued 
the following order : 



LEECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 367 

New- Orleans, July 30, 18G7. 
Special Order No. 1G5. 

A careful consideration ot the reports of Major-General Charles GrifBn, 
U. S. Army, shows tliat J. W. Throckmorton, Governor of Texas, is an 
impediment to the reconstruction of that state under the law ; he is therefore 
removed from that office. E. M. Pease is hereby appointed Governor of 
Texas, in place of J. W. Throckmorton removed. He will be obeyed and 
respected accordingly. By command of Major-General P. H. Sheridan. 
(Signed.) • George S. Hartruff, 

Assistant Adjutant General. 
(Official.) 
George Lee, 

1st Lieutenant, 21st U. S. Infantry, 

Acting Assistant Adjutant General. 

When served with the above order, Governor Throckmorton 
published an address to the people of Texas, in which he 
gave a review of his official conduct, and showed that as 
Governor he had not been an impediment to the reconstruc- 
tion of the state, but had been an "impediment '^ to the 
despotic exercise of military power. 

E. M. Pease who was made Provisional Governor of Texas 
by order of General Sheridan, was an old citizen, who had 
been Governor of the state before the war. The people of 
Texas had the right to expect from him, at least, fair treat- 
ment, but they were doomed to disappointment. Previous to 
the war he had been an ultra Democrat, but because of issues 
growing out of the war, he had become a Republican. Dif- 
fering with a large majority of the people of Texas about 
political matters, he became embittered in his feelings, and 
seemed to be imbued with hatred to those from whom he had 
obtained his wealth and position. Not long after he became 
Provisional Governor, he built for himself a monument of 
infamy that time will not destroy. This man Pease, in a 
letter to General AV. S. Hancock, then commanding the Fifth 
Military District, libelled his people, and asked General Han- 
cock to establish military tribunals— drumhead court-mar- 
tials — for the trial of citizens who might be charged with 
offenses, for the perpetration of which, if guilty, they were 
only amenable to the civil law. 

The great soldier and hero spurned the proposition, and 
indignantly refused to become a party to such a crime. The 
just rebuke administered by General Hancock in his reply to 



368 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

the application made by Pease will not be soon forgotten by 
the American ])eople. It is a production worthy of the pen 
of any of the Fathers of the Republic. But, unfortunately, 
the views expi'essed by General Hancock did not accord with 
those entertained by the Administration at Washiugton, and 
he was soon removed, and one wlio knew less of the Consti- 
tution and more of tyranny became his successor. Civil law 
w^as again subverted, and unlicensed military power was su- 
preme. The ])eople were helpless. Throckmorton, who had 
labored to protect them, was succeeded by one who had actu- 
ally invited their oppression. Military commissions sat in 
various sections of the state, and citizens of the highest re- 
spectability were brought before them and given a mere 
mockery of trial, and sentenced to ignominious punishment. 
The judges were appointed and removed at the pleasure of 
the military authorities, and very many of them had no 
higher conception of duty tlxin to obey the behests of their 
masters. Those who dared to manifest independence of 
thought and action were not permitted to obstruct or defeat 
the purposes of those who were in authority, but were removed 
and their places supplied with others of less capacity and 
honor. It was useless to ask such men to interpose their 
judicial authority for the protection of the citizen. They 
recognized no right except such as was graciously accorded by 
arbitrary power, and with them the writ of habeas corpus 
was not a v/rit of right, but an act of grace. In one instance 
a United States District Judge, when applied to for the writ 
of habeas corpus by a number of men who were on trial be- 
fore a military commission, refused to make any order grant- 
ing or refusing the writ, and gave as a reason for his refusal 
to act, that he could not afford to do anythiug that would 
require of him a decision involving the constitutionality of 
the reconstruction laws. 

The cowardly fear manifested by this Judge well illustrates 
the condition of the country at that time, and the awe that 
was inspired by military government. 

What is known as the Reconstruction Convention assem- 
bled at the capitol, in Austin, on the 1st day of June, 1868. 
No one had been permitted to vote for the election of dele- 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 369 

gates to this convention who had not been registered, and the 
registration had been so managed by the military anthorities 
as to give the entire control of it to negroes and carpet-bag 
Republicans. The result of such conduct was to prevent 
thousands of Democrats from being registered and the elec- 
tion of a large majority of Republicans as delegates to the 
convention. After organization of the convention had been 
perfected, the Provisional Governor, E. M. Pease, sent to it a 
message, in which he told but one truth about the people of 
Texas, and that was, "I knew that my appointment was dis- 
tasteful to a large majority of the people of Texas who had 
participated in the rebellion, and who have heretofore exer- 
cised the political power of the state.'^ 

He was prolific in his suggestions, and advised a dismem- 
berment of the state by selling a portion of its territory to 
the United States; and among other evidences of his little- 
ness, he said to the convention, ^^It is expected that you will 
temporarily disfranchise a number of those who participated 
in the rebellion, sufficient to place the state in the hands of 
those who are loyal to the United States Government;'^ the 
obvious meaning of which was the disfranchisement of 
enough Democrats to place in power for years to come the 
Republican party in Texas. 

The Constitution framed by this convention was, as might 
hav^e been expected, filled with provisions which gave warrant 
for the exercise of despotic power, and it was ratified by the 
same class of voters who had authorized its creation. Under 
it an election for Governor and other state officers was held, 
and Edmund J. Davis was counted in as Governor of Texas 
by the military authority of the United States. Davis v/as 
a native of Florida, but for many years had resided in Texas. 
During the war he had been a soldier in the Federal army 
and had attained the rank of Brigadier General. He was a 
Republican, and so was his only opponent. Governor A. J. 
Hamilton; but Hamilton was more conservative in his views, 
and, therefore, more acceptable to the people of Texas. The 
Democrats presented no candidate for Goverflor, for it was 
evident that if a Democrat was elected he would not be per- 
mitted to fill the-position. Such Democrats as were allowed 

24 



370 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

to vote, and availed themselves of their privilege, supported 
Hamilton. There is no doubt but what Hamilton was 
elected. But it had been determined by those in power that 
he should not have the office. Many counties which gave 
large majorities to Hamilton were illegally thrown out, and 
other expedients were resorted to by those in authority to 
enable them to declare the election of Davis. So it was with 
the Legislature. It was officially declared that each house 
liad a majority of Republicans, and thus, by skillful counting, 
any conflict between the executive and the legislative depart- 
ments of the government was avoided. 

The first Legislature after reconstruction that assembled in 
Texas, known as the 12th Legislature, has passed into history 
as the most venal and corru])t body that ever disgraced the 
state. Aside from purely political measures, it is said money 
was freely used to procure legislation, and that there was 
scarcely any attempt at concealment. The lobby was thronged 
with shrewd and unprincipled men from almost every where,who 
Avere seeking to rob the state of both land and money. Charters 
obtained to sell, were granted for almost every conceivable 
purpose. Governor Davis, though a bigot in politics, had the 
reputation of being an honest man, and he endeavored to check 
this character of legislation by the exercise of the veto power, 
but he could do no good, for the bills were passed by the re- 
quisite majority over his objections. Bribery and corruption 
were the least of the evils with which the people of Texas had 
to contend. The party then dominant in the state had been 
so long accustomed to rely upon the military power of the 
United States that it seemed to be incapable of administering 
civil government, and its leaders recognized the fact that the 
government which they had organized for the state was not a 
*' Government of the people, by the people and for the 
people," and could only be a Government of force. 

Governor Davis in his first message to the Legislature re- 
commended ^' that a police system be adopted embracing the 
whole state under one head," and said that no system of laws 
for the suppression of crime, however severe will be complete 
" without such powers are conferred on the Executive as will 
enable him in any emergency to act with the authority of 



EECONSTEUCTION IN TEXAS. 37j 

law." What a spectacle was here presented ? A man who 
claimed to have been elected the Governor of one of the States 
of this Union demanding of the Legislature of that state 
that he be clothed with the authority of law for the exercise of 
despotic power. In this boasted land of liberty, it is hard to 
realize that such a demand could have been made, but it is 
more difficult to believe that the Legislature complied with it. 
The Governor also suggested to the Legislature " the question 
of making some provision for the temporary establishment of 
martial law." Evidently it was his design to subvert the 
liberties of the people and to have authority to maintain a 
government of force, and to this end he determined upon the 
organization of a military force, that should be composed of 
such material as he desired. 

The Legislature promptly responded to the demands of the 
Governor, and passed several acts that enabled him to carry 
out his wicked purpose. The first one we shall notice is an 
act entitled "An Act to Provide for the Enrollment of the 
Militia, the Organization and Discipline of the State Guard 
and for the Public Defense." By this act all able-bodied 
male citizens residing in the state, between the ages of 18 and 
45 were made subject to military duty, except certain classes 
therein mentioned, and the Governor was made Commander- 
in-Chief of all the military forces of the state. The militia 
were, by the act, divided into two classes — one was called 
''The State Guard of Texas " and the other the '^ Reserve 
Militia." It ^vas declared that the State Guard of Texas "shall 
consist of male persons between the ages of 18 and 45 who 
shall voluntarily enroll and uniform themselves for service 
therein, provided the Commander-in-Chief {the Governor) shall 
designate the number of me7i in each county in this state allowed to 
enroll in the State Guard, and have the power to reject any person 
offering himself for enrollment in the sameP The reserve mil itia 
was composed of all persons subject to military duty who had not 
enrolled in the State Guard. Thus was the Governor enabled to 
organize troops without limit as to number, to be composed of a 
class of men that he wanted to execute his designs. A learned 
lawyer and distinguished citizen of Texas, not very long after 
the passage of this law, in commenting upon it said : " We 



372 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

desire to call attention to the very important fact, that this 
act permits able-bodied male citizens, residents in the state, to 
enroll in the reserve militia, but all persons without qualifica- 
tions between the ages of 18 and 45 can enroll in the State 
Guards provided they suit the purposes of the Governor." 
Why this distinction? The common sense of every man will 
suggest to his mind the answer. This State Guard is pecu- 
liarly the Governor's army, selected and organized out of such 
material as will serve his purposes. The Reserve Militia can 
lOnly be composed of resident citizens of Texas, and per- 
haps would refuse to murder, rob and pilfer their fellow-citizens, 
should they be called upon to do so by the Commander-in-Chief. 
They are what this act designates them, ^' Reserve/' They can- 
not act unless called out by the Commander-in-Chief. They 
remain unorganized, unarmed and unequipped, but we find 
the State Guard fully organized and equipped, scattered 
through every or nearly every county in the state, eating up 
the substance of the ])eople, and in very many instances mur- 
dering innocent and unoffending citizens ; depriving them of 
their property by force or fraud ; disturbing the peace and 
quiet of whole communities and inflaming the animosity of 
the races ; and in a word fully carrying out the purposes and 
interests of their organization. To use the Governor's own 
language, the Legislature in the passage of this act has con- 
ferred " upon the Executive such powers as will enable him 
in any emergency to act wath authority of law." 

In response to the suggestion made by the Governor in re- 
gard to martial law, the 26th section of the act we are consid- 
ering, provided "it shall be the duty of the Governor, and he 
is hereby authorized whenever in his opinion the enforcement 
of the law of this state is obstructed, within any county or 
counties by combination of lawless men too strong for the 
control of the civil authorities, to declare such county or coun- 
ties under martial law, and to suspend the laws therein until 
the Legislature shall convene and take such action as it may 
deem necessary." 

Not content with the military force already provided, and 
the extraordinary powers conferred on the Governor, the Leg- 
islature on the 1st day of July, 1870, passed an act entitled 



KECONSTEUCTION IN TEXAS. 373 

" An Act to Establish a State Police and Provide for the 
Regulation and Government of the Same/' 

By the terms of this act, the force was composed of one 
Chief of Police, four Captains, eight Lieutenants, twenty 
Sergeants and two hundred and twenty-five Privates. In 
addition to the above force, the act provided that "All 
sheriffs and their deputies, constables, marshals of cities and 
towns, and their deputies, and police of cities and towns shall 
be considered as a part of the State Police, and be subject to 
the supervisory control of the Governor and Chief of State Po- 
lice, and under directions of the Governor, or Chief of State 
Police, may at any time be called upon to act in concert with 
the State Police in preserving or suppressing crime, or in 
bringing to justice, offenders. The Chief of State Police, 
subject to the Governor^ may make all needful regulations and 
rules for the government and direction of these officers in 
matters looking to the maintenance of public peace, prevent- 
ing or suppressing crime and bringing to justice offenders, 
and any ot these ojisers failing or refusing j^^^ompt obedience to 
such rules or regulations^ or to the orders of the Governor, or 
Chief of State Police, shall be removed from office, and suffer 
such other punishment as may he prescribed by law.^^ 

This was an extraordinary power to confer upon the Gov- 
ernor. It gave him control of all the civil executive offices 
of the state, and subjected them to removal from office, if 
they failed or refused prompt obedience to the rules and reg- 
ulations of the State Police, or to the orders of the Governor 
or Chief of State Police. The Governor had asked the 
Legislature ''to confer on him such powers as would enable 
him in any emergency to act with authority of law." In this 
act his request was literally complied with, and his pleasure 
or will, mide the paramount law of the state. The law cre- 
ating the State Police was amended so as to enable the Gov- 
ernor to appoint an additional force of twenty men in each 
county, the expense of which was to be borne by the people 
of the respective counties. 

This additional force, like the others, was made subject to 
the order of the Governor and could be used by him at 
his pleasure. Was ever king, prince or potentate clothed 
with greater power ! 



374 '^'HY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The Davis administration was the result of the methods 
adopted by the authorities of the United States, who were in 
control of the state during reconstruction. It was the legiti- 
mate child of arbitrary power, and the continuation of 
despotic governmenfe in its very worst form. This was soon 
made manifest to the people of Texas. Terrible as had been 
the oppression of the people by the military authorities of the 
Federal Government, it was now even worse. Men, if possi- 
ble, more infamous and of less responsibility, were in a posi- 
tion to injure and harass the people. Not unfrequejitly they 
availed themselves of their official position to wreak ven- 
geance upon those who had incurred their personal animosity. 

The state police was a terror to every community, and in 
the name and by the authority of the state, they perpetrated 
crimes of every dcscri})tion. They searched any place, or 
seized any person or thing, and without probable cause sup- 
ported by oath or affirmation. The Governor held that the 
uniform which was worn by the State Guard and state police, 
together with their silver badge of office, supplied the place 
of affidavits and warrants, and authorized persons wearing 
the same to search any place, or to seize any person or thing. 

In the month of December, 1870, one Lieutenant Prit- 
chett, at the head of three white and four negro police, went 
to the house of Colonel James J. Gathings, in Hill County, 
and by force entered the same and searched it, against the 
protest of the proprietor. This was done without any 
authority of law, and no charge of any kind had been pre- 
ferred against Colonel Gathings or any of his family. After 
they had left the house, Gathings went to the nearest magis- 
trate and made affidavit to the facts, upon which the magis- 
trate issued his warrant for the arrest of the parties offending. 
Lieutenant Pritchett and his party were arrested and gave 
bond for their appearance at a certain day before the magis- 
trate, and forfeited the same ; and instead of appearing before 
the magistrate, Pritchett went to Austin, the capital of the 
state, and reported to the Governor. Instead of sending 
Pritchett back to stand his trial, the Governor placed about one 
hundred State Guards under General Davidson, the chief of 
.state police, and ordered him to proceed with all speed to Hill 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 375 

Couuty. Upon the arrival of Davidson and his force in 
Hill County, he arrested Colonel Gathings, and placed Lim in 
the court-house, from which all citizens were excluded, aud a 
heavy guard stationed around it. General Davidson informed 
Colonel Gathings that no military commission would be con- 
vened to try him if he would pay the expenses of the force, 
which he estimated at §500.00 per day. Upon Colonel 
Gathings' refusal to comply w^ith this demand, Davidson 
informed him that he would declare the county under mar- 
tial law, tax the county to support the troops, organize a 
court-martial and try him, and if convicted, send iiim imme- 
diately to the penitentiary without the right of appeal. After 
this Davidson proposed to Gathings to settle the matter for 
$3000. Colonel Gathings, with the assistance of some 
friends, paid the money. 

The seventh section of Article I. of the Constitution, then 
in force, reads as follows, viz. : — 

"The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers 
and possessions from all unreasonable seizures or searches, 
and no warrant to search any place, or to seize any persQU or 
thing, shall issue without describing such piace, person or 
thing, as near as they may be, nor without probable cause, 
supported by oath or affirmation." 

Davis had taken his solemn oath to support this and every 
other provision of the Constitution, but under the authority 
granted him by the Legislature, he deliberately violated it, 
not only in the case of Colonel Gathings, but in hundreds of 
other instances, 

A narration of the crimes and outrages committed by 
Governor Davis and his minions would fill a volume. There 
was an election for members of Congress in Texas, in the 
month of October, 1871, and in August prior to this election. 
Governor Davis issued a proclamation to the people of Texas, 
wdiich, as a manifestation of despotic authority and for brazen 
impudence, is without a parallel in the history of this, and 
perhaps of any other state in the Union. The proclamation 
reads as follows : — 

"All persons coming to vote shall deposit their votes with 
the least possible delay, and after this is done they are for- 



376 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

bidden, under any pretext, to remain about the polls, or at 
the cGnnty seat, unless this h their rcsideneej during the time of 
eleclion, but shall return to their houses and usual employment^ 
and peace officers. State Guards or militia on duty at the polls 
shall see that this regulation is complied with." 

The Constitution expressly proliibited the arrest of electors 
during their attendance at elections, and in going to and re- 
turning from the same, exccjJt in case of treason, felony, or 
breach of the peace. 

But what cared Davis and his followers for the Constititu- 
tion? Undoubtedly it Avas his purpose to place at tlie polls 
such an array of peace officers. State Guards and state police 
as would deter many Democrats from voting, but in this he 
did not succeed. In the Third Congressional District, W. 
T. Clark was the Republican (candidate for Congress, antl D. 
C. Giddings was his Democratic opponent. Governor Davis 
canvassed the district in behalf of Clark, and liis speeches 
were filled with vituj)eration and abuse of those who differed 
from him in politics, and were well calculated to create 
trouble. Every kind of device was resorted to, to inveigle 
Democrats into the commission of some act by which they 
would be placed in a false and disloyal attitude. 

The writer remembers to have seen a number of United 
States flags suspended across a street, and hung so low that a 
man of ordinary height could not walk under them without 
coming in contact with them, and it was well understood that 
they were thus suspended with the hope that some indiscreet 
person would tear one or more of them down, so that it 
mio-ht be flashed over the wires that in Texas the flao; of the 
Union had been desecrated and trampled under foot. But 
the plan did not succeed, and the flags remained unmolested. 

At one time Davis placed Walker County under martial 
law, and to defray the ex}:>ense3 of the military force that 
he quartered upon that county, he compelled the people 
thereof to pay not less than eight thousand dollars. After- 
wards he placed Limestone and Freestone Counties under 
martial law, for no other purpose than to keep the vote of 
those counties from being counted for Giddings, the Demo- 
cratic candidate for Congress. The people of Limestone 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 377 

County were compelled to pay a sum of thirty-six thousand 
dollars — the amount of a tax that was levied upon them by a 
military order issued by one General A. G. JNIaaloy, who 
styled himself "Commander of the State Forces in Limestone 
County." 

The Legislature conferred upon the Governor the power to 
appoint a mayor, and other officers for each incorporated city 
or town in the state. Under this authority Davis placed 
"carpet-baggers," and others of his political faith, in control 
of the municipal governments, in a number of cities in the 
state, and many of these appointees reaped fortunes from 
their crookedness in office. 

Their usual plan was to place a bonded debt upon the city 
or town, for which but little, if any consideration was received 
by the inhabitants thereof; but the Mayor and Aldermen 
became rich, and the people were burdened with increased 
taxation. 

In one city of not more than ten or twelve thousand inhabi- 
tants, they created a debt of one and one half millions of dol- 
lars, and the improvements for which this debt was incurred 
could have been obtained for much less than one-third of the 
amount stated. The bonds generally carried a high rate of 
interest, and all deficiencies in the payment of matured interest 
were met by the issuance and sale of new bonds, and thus from 
time to time were the burdens of the people increased. 

Under the administration of Gov. Throckmorton, the rate 
of state taxation was fifteen cents on the hundred dollars, and the 
taxes levied by the counties were correspondingly low, but 
were found to be amply sufficient for governmental purposes. 
The state was then practically out of debt, and had a balance 
in the treasury. 

Whatever wrongs had been perpetrated by the military 
authorities of the United States during the reconstruction 
period, they had not robbed the treasury, or imposed onerous 
taxation upon the people. This was reserved for the Davis 
administration. From 1870 to 1874, the period covered by 
the administration of Governor Davis, the state ad valorem 
tax alone was fifty cents on the one hundred dollars, and 
this was augmented by special state and county taxes, to an 



378 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

amount unparalleled in the previous or subsequent history of 
Texas. 

Governor Davis in his message to the Legislature, speak- 
ing of the state debt, said there was due tlie school fund, 
|82,1 68.82, and due the university fund, §134,472.26, and 
the only other indebtedness was that of the ten per cent, 
warrants. This amount, he stated, was not considerable, and 
further said : 

"Texas may therefore, substantially be said to be out of 
debt." This was a frank, but true admission made by the 
Governor of the financial condition of the state when he and 
his party came into power. 

On December 1st, 1873, the Comptroller in the Davis ad- 
ministration, i\Ir. A. Bledsoe, in his report to the Governor, 
gives the state debt at that date at §1,797,884.16. And 
when his administration closed he left, as a legacy to the peo- 
ple of Texas, a debt that amounted to §4,414,095.45. 

During the administration of Governor Davis, warrants 
upon the state treasury were hawked on the markets at forty- 
five cents on the dollar, and the bonds of the state were prac- 
tically valueless in the home and foreign markets. The 
Davis administration made large promises in regard to the 
education of the youth of the state, and fulfilled them by the 
creation of a cumbersome system of public schools, in which 
a vast retinue of officers absorbed the money appropriated 
for school purposes so rapidly as to prevent the schools from 
being taught a sufficient length of time to do any good. The 
children of the state, and especially the colored children, 
were growing up in ignorance, values were not appreciating, 
population was but slowly increasing, the state was rapidly 
becoming bankrupt, and the ruthless exercise of arbitrary 
power had rendered life, liberty and property insecure. 

Such were the results of an administration of public affairs 
that had been forced upon the people of Texas by those who 
had been placed in charge of reconstruction. But the day of 
deliverance was at hand. At the next general election the 
people swept Davis and his party from power, and elected 
for state officers the entire Democratic ticket. In both houses 
of the Legislature a large majority of Democrats was elected. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 379 

Kichard Coke was ele(;tecl Governor, and notwithstandino- 
the immense majority of votes he had received, Davis would 
have resisted his induction into office if he could have been 
sustained in such action by the General Government. He 
vainly appealed to General Grant, who was then President of 
the United States, to assist him in his proposed usurpation of 
power, but General Grant refused to give him aid, and Coke 
was inaugurated and duly installed as Governor of tlie state. 
The Democratic party has had continuous control of public 
affairs in Texas since the defeat of Davis, and now, after 
fifteen years of Democratic government, we can speak with 
csrtainty of its results. 

The Democratic Legislature, elected with Governor Coke, 
immediately repealed the odious laws passed during the 
Davis administration, and the people felt that they were once 
more free. State Guards and state police, martial law and 
military despotism, have become things of the past, and it is 
sincerely hoped will never be visited upon the people of 
Texas again. The credit of the state has been restored. 
Within a few months after the inauguration of Governor 
Coke, the securities of the state commanded from ninety to 
ninety-five cents on Wall Street, and afterwards sold for one 
dollar and forty cents, and at this time rate as high as do 
the securities of any state in the Union. 

The bonded debt of the state is now §4,237 730, which is 
all owned by special funds of the state except §1,220,630. 
Taxation has been largely reduced. The state ad valorem 
revenue tax is ten cents on the one hundred dollars, and the 
tax for the support of the public schools is twelve and one- 
half cents on the one hundred dollars, and the average rate 
of county tax is forty-seven cents on the one hundred dollars. 
These taxes are found to be amply sufficient to meet the ex- 
penses of state and county gov^ernment. 

Good government has not been -sWthout its influence 
in attracting immigration. The census reports show that the 
population of Texas in 1870 was 818,579 ; that it had 
increased in 1880 to 1,591,749, and there is little doubt but 
what Texas will have in 1890 a population of not less than 
three millions. 



380 VVIIY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Not only Immigration, but with it capital, was attracted to 
our state and sought investment ; and enterprise and industry 
have met witii their just reward. Great progress has been 
made in the building^ of railroads. In 1870 there was in 
operation in Texas only 711 miles of railway. In 1888, 
there had been constructed and was in operation, 8190 miles, 
and now there cannot be much less than 9000 miles of rail- 
road in operation in this state. 

Public education has not been neglected, but it has been 
fostered and largely developed. Normal schools for the 
training of teachers, both white and colored, have been estab- 
lished. A state university richly endowed has been founded, 
and is now in successful operation ; and the agricultural and 
mechanical college of the state, has been in a prosperous con- 
dition for a number of years. 

AYhen Texas was annexed to, and became a part of, the 
United States, she reserved her public domain ; and long 
before the war between the states, a large portion of it was 
set apart for the maintenance of free schools. 

A ])art of these lands have been sold, and the proceeds 
applied to the public school fund ; but there yet remains about 
twenty-eight millions of acres belonging to the public schools. 
The permanent school fund now holds bonds amounting to 
$6,334,957, and Interest bearing notes given in payment for 
school lands, and secured by liens npon said lands aggregat- 
ing $10,380,000, the annual Interest on which, together with 
the money derived from land leases, amounted last year to 
the sum of $1,010,415.58. And this amount will annually 
increase for years to come. 

In addition to the lands belonging to the state, each county 
in the state owns 17,712 acres of land, the proceeds of which 
are to be applied exclusively to the support of common 
schools. 

For the further aM of free schools, a tax of twelve and 
one-half cents on the one hundred dollars worth of property, 
and a poll tax of one dollar on every male inhabitant of the 
state between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, is set 
apart for their support, and each community has the 
option of supplementing the state funds by local taxation. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS. 381 

Texas annually expends about $2,778,000 for the support of 
public free schools. Notwithstanding the negroes own but 
little property and pay scarcely any taxes — not even a poll tax 
— and the burden of sustaining the free schools is borne by 
the white population almost exclusively, yet in the disburse- 
ment of the school funds no discrimination is made against 
colored children, but they and the white children fare alike. 

Complete reports were not made to the Superintendent of 
public instruction of the state from all the counties last year, 
but from what were made, we learn that during the year, 
364,744 children, between the ages of eight and sixteen 
attended the free schools, of which number. 280,281 were 
wdiite, and 84,463 were colored children. Considering the 
respective number of w4iites and blacks in the state, this is a 
good showing for the colored people. 

During the administration of E. J. Davis, the taxes levied 
for the support of free schools for one year were many times 
greater than the annual tax levied by the state under Demo- 
cratic rule, and more school-houses are now built each year, 
than were built during the entire period of the Davis admin- 
istration, while the schools are incomparably better. 

The white people of Texas believe that the best remedy 
for all the evils which may flow from ^^ universal suffrage,'^ 
is " universal education,'^ and in the interests of good gov- 
ernment, they have thought proper to give the colored people 
the advantages of a common, school education, with the hope 
that it may help to qualify them for the discharge of the 
duties incumbent upon American citizens. 

In Texas the relations between the white and colored people 
have always been amicable and peaceable. In a few localities 
in the state, disturbances have occurred, but there has been 
no serious conflict between the white and colored races, nor is 
any such conflict apprehended. With the exception of the 
V/ashington County case before the Senate of the United 
States at its last session, (and which was not sustained by 
evidence) it has never been charged that in Texas colored 
men have been prevented from voting as they pleased ; nor 
has it been alleged that their votes were not properly counted. 

Texas has entered upon an era of unexampled prosperity. 



382 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Her delightful climate, which permits outdoor worK in every 
mouth of the year, and her cheap and productiv^e lands, to- 
getherwith light taxation and exceptional educational insti- 
tutions, have attracted white immigrants from every state in 
the Union, as well as from Europe, and this immigration is 
increasing so rapidly, that with us the negro will soon fail to 
excite solicitude upon the pare of any political party. What 
we want in Texas is to be let alone by the Federal Govern- 
ment and to be allowed to manage our local affairs. 

Our people earnestly hope that no policy will be adopted 
by the present or any future Administration of the Federal 
Government that does not embrace within its scope the whole 
country. 

We have had enough of a ^^ Southern policy'' during the 
"reconstruction period," the evils of which, at least to some 
extent, I have endeavored to describe in this paper. We 
trust that the people of no section of the United States will 
ever again be willing to see a Government of any of the 
States in this Union, established by the people thereof, sup- 
planted by a military despotism. 

Chas. Stewart. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 
I. INTRODUCTORY. 

rpHE loss of Lincoln was a calamity to the South second 
JL only to the war. But for that sad event, the States, 
with their autonomy, would, in fact and law, have con- 
tinued self-government in union, on the line that he had 
marked, and the horrors of reconstruction Avould have been 
avoided. 

Providentially, the leadership of the dominant political 
party was then in the hands of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and 
such like, the former holding the executive power and the 
supreme command and direction of all federal forces, with 
the entire military and executive duty and responsibility im- 
posed upon him, by the Constitution and the laws passed in 
pursuance of it, of closing the war, establishing peace, and 
securing the fruits of victory ; the most important of these 
being to restore the Union, which in constitution and in 
nature, could but be, at any given time, as Article I. phrases it, 
''the several states which may be included within this union." 
There was actually no opening for any reconstruction that 
was not unlawful and revolutionary ; and, indeed, there was 
nothing to reconstruct ; the states were complete, and the 
"union" ''included" them all. This absolute truth, the 
Government declared and proclaimed as a fact accomplished 
— a truth — under the seal of the United States, on April 2d, 
1866. 

What "Course'^ did Congress Marhf 

*" The answer is gravely important. In July, 1861, Con- 
gress resolved, (every Republican, in the House but two, and 
all in the Senate but one, voting yes), that this war is not 

383 



384 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

waged in *'a spirit of oppression, or for conquest or subjuga- 
tion, . . . but to defend and maintain the supremacy of 
the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dig- 
nity, equality, and rights of the several states unimpaired ; 
and that, as soon as these objects are attained the war ought 
to cease/' 

What was then the Actual Situation, 

according to the Constitution and laws? Congress had 
always treated secession as a nullity and as rebellion, and had 
pledged its faith that the war was purposed only to save the 
Union, and was not for oppression, conquest or subjugation. 

Lincoln had, throughout the war, held secession to be null, 
and the states to be in the Union, but acting rebel liously. 

Johnson, as history shows, ^'took the position that a state 
could not secede, and that, therefore, none of the Southern 
States had ever been really out of the Union.'' 

And, finally, the Supreme Federal Court settled the matter 
forever, in never-varying wisdom and justice, in the cases of 
Texas v. White (7 Wall., 700), White v. Hart (13 Wall., 651), 
United States v. Ins. Co. (22 Wall., 99), Keith v. Clark (97 
U. S., 454), and many others, holding the nullifi/ of seccssiony 
the continuance of the Union during the war, the indestructi- 
bility of the states, and the validity of all their acts during 
the war which were not hostile to the Union or conflicting 
with the Constitution. And in 22 Wallace, 99, they cite the 
above cases and others, and say: "After these emphatic 
utterances, controversy on this subject should cease." 

When the laying down of arms was completed, the dawn 
which had cheered the close of Lincoln's life had become the 
full day of peace ; the Confederates had surrendered and been 
paroled. They were to go home, obey the laws there, pursue 
the arts of peace, keep their ])arole, and wage war no more. 
Habituated to institutional liberty, and relying on the good 
faith and magnanimity of the victors, the subdued states and 
their citizens went to work earnestly and honorably, in grad- 
ually restoring order,. law and justice; and they ever after- 
wards adhered to the terms and obeyed them, without any 
attempt at evasion or murmur of discontent; and neither 



EECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 385 

their good faith, nor their obedience to the "supreme law'' 
was ever impugned. 

Look Now at the Terms and Conditions. 

1. Lay down your arms and submit to the Constitution. 

2. Resume your action in the Union, observe its require- 
ments, and abandon secession as a remedy under it. 

3. Abolish slavery. 

4. Agree to the sacredness of the Federal war debt, and 
the nullity of the Confederate one. 

History shows that these terms were fully complied with ; 
and that the unity called " the Government," representing the 
United States, so declared on the second of April, 1866. 
'^The United States," an association of equals, had resumed 
business, and Congress was, at best, its agent, with ^'defined 
duties" and '^designated objects of attention," (to use the 
very words of Washington, on this subject, in his first inaug- 
ural), to which "duties" and "objects" every Congressman 
had sworn to confine himself. 

The Government of the United States is a unit; Congress 
acts and binds it ; so does the executive, and so does the 
judiciary — each in its sphere. The executive holds the seal 
of the United Stales ; and by affixing it, and promulgating 
the act, it binds the whole Government, and makes any 
attempt of Congress to undo or frustrate the same, unconsti- 
tutional, if not revolutionary. 

II. STEPS FROM WAR TO PEACE. 

After the Confederate arms were laid down, the triune 
personality called " the Government of the United States," 
took many steps in the establishment of peaceful conditions, 
beginning early in 1865, and ending in what may be called 
dejure peace — that of April 2, 1866 — all being done with the 
universal wish of the people. De facto peace had been enjoyed 
for nearly a year, with its increasing order, industry, prosperity 
and content ; and it had convinced every mind, and made 
every heart feel, not only that " the Southern people could be 
trusted," but that they were as fit as ever for liberty and self- 

25 



386 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

rule ; and, moreover, that it was the solemn and pressing duty 
of the Federal autliorities to permit the people themselves, at 
once to enjoy and protect their ov/n " blessings of liberty ''^ — 
these being the very raison d'etre of the Federal Constitution. 
Lincoln evidently had no intent of taking hold of states, al'ter 
military necessity had passed. His wise, patriotic, simple, 
common-sense policy was to restore relations and functions. 

Passing by Lincoln's civil establishments made under, and 
in aid of, iiis military authority, and within his military lines, 
he may be said to have made his first step on his restoration 
])lan in February, 18G4 — the plan itself having been stated 
fully in his proclamation of December 8, 1863. His sugges- 
tion and promise therein to the subdued part of Louisiana, 
Avas, in general terms, that if 10 per cent, of the state would 
elect and hold a state convention and form a constitution, 
he would recognize them as the state, and consider the other 
citizens as still enemies. This was, of course, a legitimate war 
measure, effective o\\\y, flagrante bcllo, being only provisional, 
and to last till Louisiana, (the old political personality, inde- 
structible except under Thor's hammei:), should "come to her 
own." Under executive and military instructions from the 
commander-in-chief, Gen. Shepley ordered an election for 
Governor, etc., and members of a convention. A book in 
the Secretary of State's office gives "a record of the acts of 
the Governor Michael Hahn;" and "returns of election made 
by Gen. Sheplev, Military Governor of Louisiana, February 
22nd, 1864: ' Hahn, 6,158; Fellows, 2,720; Flanders, 
1,847; total vote, 10,725." The convention sat in the 
spring of 1864; contained no representative Louisianian, 
i. e. no one whom the people generally would trust. The 
popular vote is entered in that book thus: "September 19th, 
1864, for the Constitution, 6,836; against, 1,566." This 
record is probably correct, and the statement of a vote of 
12,000, false. 

The Legislature, under the said Constitution, adopted the 
13th amendment, abolishing slavery, and the Government, on 
December 18, 1865, proclaimed its adoption, naming Louisi- 
ana, Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Ar- 
kansas among the ratifiers. 



KECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 387 

Now let us note the striking and special interest taken by 
Mr. Lincoln in the restoration of Louisiana. To a committee, 
June 19, 1863, he wrote: ^^The people of Louisiana shall 
not lack an opportunity for a fair election of both Federal 
and State officers, by want of anything within my power to 
give thera.'' 

Idem sonans with this, were the steps above mentioned ; 
and Gov. Hahn's message — probably inspired by Lincoln — 
to the 10 per cent. Legislature, contained the following: 

The Constitution "provides wisely that our terms shall ex- 
pire at an early day, in case of the restoration of peace in the 
whole state; and it is made my duty, as soon as an election 
can be ' held in every parish in the state,^ to declare the fact, 
and order a new election. I need hardly tell you that I shall 
have real pleasure when this event shall be at hand;" and he 
winds up by hoping that "the whole people will soon exer- 
cise the right to elect state officers." 

The basal idea of these men was the same as we shall ste 
that Johnson held, viz: that ^Hhe people of the South must be 
trusted.'^ 

Two facts should come in here to showLincoln's full confi- 
dence in Hahn, while they further indicated his nature, and 
his wise and kind policy towards Louisiana. In the message 
just quoted, Hahn says : " The President invested me, with- 
out solicitation or suggestion on my part, with the power 
exercised hitherto by the military Governor of Louisiana." 

In a letter to him dated March 13, 1864, Lincoln writes: 
" Now you are about to have a convention, which, among 
other things, will define the elective franchise, I barely sug- 
gest for your private consideration, whether some of the col- 
lored people may not be let in — as, for instance, the veiy 
intelligent. . . . But this is only a suggestion, not to the 
public, but to you alone." 

The writer will merely say here, that both of these men 
recognized the people's natural and Constitutional 7'ight of 
self-rule; their fitness for it; and the duty in the premises 
of " trusting the Southern people/^ with all their future polit- 
ical problems. 



388 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

The terms of Surrender and Parole 

accorded to Louisianians at Lee and eTohnston's surrenders, 
were the same as those granted at Kirby Smith's, which will 
here be quoted : " Shreveport, May 26, 18G5. The officers 
and men paroled under this agreement, will be allowed to 
return to their homes, with the assurance that they will not 
be disturbed by the authorities of tJie United States, as long as 
they continue to observe the conditions of their parole, and the 
laws in force where they reside.^' 

The jus gentium and the laws of civilized war were thus 
added to the ^' supreme law of the land/^ and to the goodness 
of the executive heart and intent, as assurances of protec- 
tion to the sorely stricken commonwealth. And one of 
Grant's greatest glories was, his true chivalric faith and mag- 
nanimity, in earnestly insisting on the sacredness of the terms 
of surrender and parole. 

Tlie promised General Election. 

According to the intent and promises above mentioned, a 
general election was called in the fall of 1865^ the Legislature 
of which met November 23d, and fully and fitly represented 
Louisiana. 

The first notable act of the real state, her sober second 
thought and her pledge of sacred faith, was the following sin- 
cere and solemn act of December 6, 1865 : 

JOINT RESOLUTIONS RELATIVE TO FEDERAL RELATIONS. 

Whereas^ It is eminently proper, both to our constituents and the Gov- 
ernment, that the Representative body, fresh from the people of the whole 
state, the first that has assembled in Louisiana since the surrender, should 
give a pul)lic and unmistakable expression of sentiment in regard to the 
situation, therefore, 

1. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
state of Louisiana in General Assembly convened, That there is no spirit 
of resistance to Federal authority among the people of Louisiana ; that 
they frankly avowed their purpose and object in the late struggle for sepa- 
rate government, and having failed in that, they now, with equal frank- 
ness, accept, as the inevitable result, the present mtuation, including the 
abolition of slavery, the re-establisment of which they do not expect. 

2. Be it further resolved, etc. That, in the expression that '^ the Southern 
'people must be trusted," President Johnson exhibited a thorough acquaint- 



KECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 389 

ance with Southern character, and eminent wisdom and statesmanship • 
and that it is our firm resolve to justify this coniidence, and to sustain the 
President in his efforts to restore these states to representation in Congress 
and a position of poliiical equality in the Union. 

3. Be it further resolved, etc., That the people of Louisiana are unre- 
served in their purpose of loyalty ; and, if permitted, that, to the Constitution 
of the United States and the Union of the states thereunder, do they now 
look for their future political happiness and prosperity. 

Duncan S. Cage, Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Albert Voorhies, Lieutenant Governor and President of Senate. 

Approved Dec. 6, 1865. 

J. Madison Wells, Governor of the state of Louisiana. 

Louisiana thus fully expressed lier will and wish. She 
surrendered ^^ under this agreement '' (siqyra) in good faith. 
She wanted peace, order, law and self-rule. She stipulated 
for them ; received the pledge of them ; went home to enjoy 
them ; and took never a backward step ! Her sincerity has 
never been impugned ! 

III. THE RIOT OF JULY, 1866. 

The Southern people being " remitted to the laws as they 
then existed '' — to use the phrase of General Sherman, as to 
the Sherman-Johnston agreement — had gone to work in their 
respective communities, in business, civil and political affairs. 
Their panoply was, not only the constitution as a law, and 
the royal faith of its parties, but the moral force of the jus 
gentium and the laws of war. According to " the agree- 
ment '^ of surrender and parole, they were " to return to their 
homes, toith the assurance that they would not be disturbed 

BY the AUTHORITIES OF THE UNITED STATES as long CLS they 

continued to observe the conditions of their parole, and 
THE LAWS IN FORCE lohere they reside.'^ 

The Lmvs in Force. 

Was not the federal constitution then " in force ? ^' also the 
laws under it ? also the state constitutions, and the laws there- 
under ? also the municipal corporations, and their ordinances? 
were not these laws all " in force? " If not, when, how, and, 
for what part, were they repealed ? Inter arma silent leges ; 



390 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

but when "surrender" and "parole" were agreed on, and 
peace was declared, they were silent no longer. The only laws 
that could be thought to repeal or conflict with any of them, 
were the war-laws heretofore mentioned, which were provis- 
ional and temporary, and were so considered by Lincoln, and 
later, even by Sheridan ; and were finally held to be so by the 
Courts. The truth is " the laws in force," lying at the basis 
of every thing — the vital and all-compreliensive laws — were 
the law of each state's being, and the law of self-govern- 
ment. 

The soldiers of Louisiana were as faithful to their parole, 
as they had been brave in the armies of Lee, Johnston and 
Kirby Smith. In good faith they went home to the self- 
rule, self-help and self-cure, to which they were habituated. 
Lincoln's plain, practical and homely utterances had impressed 
them with his conservative wisdom and benevolent heart ; 
and they were pursuing the course which he had marked out. 
Governor Hahn, acting probably under Lincoln's advice, pro- 
mised an election, in which the whole people of the state 
should participate. This was held, and the new Legislature 
met on November 23, 1865. Peace reigned from shore to 
shore ; and " the laws in force," referred to in the parole, 
superseded absolutely the war-laws and orders, especially as 
these were at best intended as provisional and temporary. 
Cessante ratione cessat lex. The common-sense view seems to 
be this, that in returning to self-government, the people were 
like farmers, mechanics, merchants and manufactureis, 
who had been absent for a while from their flirms and shops, 
which they were returning to repossess and work. They 
went out to fight ; got whipped, and went back to business. 
Peace, industry and restoration were their chief, if not only 
ideas. The conquering, party simply required them to go to 
their homes and institutions, and do as they had always done, 
in exercising their rights. They found at home the unchanged 
body-politic; their constitution still stood, as did their state 
and municipal laws ; and of course in returning to their nor- 
mal condition, they began their political as well as their 
private business. Their Legislature, elected in the fall of 
1865^ was chosen on Lincoln's plan, under full Federal cog- 



RECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 391 

nizance, was composed of their best men, and was the leo-iti- 
mate offspring of Louisiana's will. 

Hence, it was under the express command and sanction of 
the United States, that they went back to heir business of 
self-government, the machinery of which they had themselves 
made and worked, and which was still in existence and oper- 
ation, though perhaps not in full repair and efficiency. But 
they owned it ; and their state organic law, their statutes and 
municipal institutions, all under the federal compact, were the 
actual '' laws in force where they resided'^ '^h^J? therefore, 
could but rely with full faith on the '^ assurance ^^ of the 
government, so solemnly given as heretofore cited. 

AVhile in this condition, a gang of political gypsies, dis- 
reputable native whites, and negro leaders, were secretly 
making a new Constitution for the state, pretending to act as 
the adjourned convention of 1864 — a war convention, which 
had been held on Mr. Lincoln's ten per cent, plan, heretofore 
stated — had finished its work and submitted its plan of a 
Constitution, which the people had adopted : and it had ad- 
journed sine die. 

The people became anxious and unhappy; their anxiety 
was intensified by the fear that Congress favored the scheme 
of radical rrconstrudion, i. e., revolution, instead of Lincoln^s 
benign restoration. About that time, it leaked out that some 
unlawful or revolutionary scheme, like the forming of a new 
Constitution, was on foot. When it transpired, the great 
Louisiana jurist. Christian Roselius, who had stood for the 
Union and against seceding, in the Convention of 1861, and 
through the war, said, that ^^ every participant in the treason- 
able scheme should be arrested and sent to jail." The authori- 
ties then attempted to suppress the assembly as illegal. The 
collision of July 30th, 1866, was the result. So secret was 
the conspiracy, that it had actually matured a Constitution, 
which was signed by the members, printed and promul- 
gated, and copies were offered for sale by Bloomfield, Steel & 
Co., before the public or authorities knew of it as a thing in 
esse — so far as the writer can learn. 

Was not that riot, with the bloodshed of that sad affair, the 
direct result of the bad faith of the Government, or, to be 



392 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

more specific — of the Congress? As to whether the whites 
or the blacks were responsible for the opening attacks, the 
Re})ublican private secretary of the Republican Governor 
testified that, *^at the outset, the negroes were, in every in- 
stance, the instigators of the riot ;'^ and that he " was an eye- 
witness of the whole aifair." Be that as it may, the flagrant 
perfidy and tyranny that Avere then threatened, of remitting 
the people to their homes, home-law and home-rule, i. e., self- 
government, and then, despite the "j)arole" and "assurance" 
stated, subjecting them, while in ])rofound peace and perfect 
obedience, to military domination, martial law, and trials at 
the drum-head — for such was the menace — must have stirred 
society in all its depths, set in motion the imj)ulsive, reckless 
and desperate elements, while relegating the conservative and 
proprietary forces, which, in quiet times, always rule, to timid 
inaction,^and even hiding away. Congress, in its tyranny and 
extravagance, should heed the lesson. All history shows 
that when society is thus agitated and oppressed, the wealthy 
and well-to-do classes — if not beneficiaries — are most impa- 
tient and least forbearing. It is they who are most prone to 
send up, as of old, the earnest cry : ''Give us a king!" and 
it is they who can best aid him in getting and keeping his 
crown ! 

The reconstruction laws ended, for many millions of Ameri- 
cans, their two years of profound peace, wonderful recupera- 
tion, high hopes and cheering prospects. The Government 
had fully punished them by war, had received their surrender, 
and given them paroles and solemn assurances of peace and 
freedom from Federal disturbance ; but it proceeded, not- 
withstanding, to pour out a second "vial of wrath !" "Hell 
followed " for ten years ! 

IV. MILITARY GOVEENMENT IN PEACE. 

By the Act of Congress passed March 2nd, 1867, and sup- 
plemented March 23rd, the Southern States were placed 
under military government, Louisiana and Texas constitut- 
ing ihe Fifth Military District. Military interference hence- 
forth was frequent and aggravating. The laws passed by 



EECOXSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 393 

the City Council of New Orleans, requiring the police to be 
residents of the city for five years, were vetoed and v/iped 
out by the military commander, because they prevented, he 
said, the appohitment of ex-Union soldiers on the force. An 
election for city officers having been fixed for March 11th, 
1867, it was postponed by General Sheridan, who assumed 
command of the district, without warrant of law, because, as 
he stated, no officer had been appointed under the law, and 
he thought it necessary for him to act as to the holding of 
this election, until ^' special instructions covering the case are 
received." 

The writer deems it proper here to say, that the violations 
of the princi})les of institutional liberty shown in these pages, 
are attributed to Congress, and not to General Sheridan, 
whose merits as a soldier are known and confessed by all 
men, and who could but obey orders and do the duties as- 
signed. 

On March 27th, 1867, he began removing the state and 
other officials previously elected, and appointing their suc- 
cessors, whom he judged more fit for the places. The first 
was Andrew S. Herron, Attorney-General of the State, and 
afterwards a member of Congress. John T. Monroe, Mayor 
of New Orleans, Edmund Abell, Judge of the Criminal 
Court, and others, were similarly ousted. 

In April, General Sheridan appointed the Board of Regis- 
tration, to whom was given full and complete control of all 
the registration and election machinery of the state. 

It will be seen that he was complete dictator of the Fifth 
District in a sense never known before in America. He had 
absolute control of all the offices, with power of removal and 
appointment; he could annul or change any laws which did 
not meet his favor; and with his control of the election and 
registration machinery, he could elect any persons he chose. 

The power of removal and appointment was fully exer- 
cised by him, even in cases in which politics played little 
part, his obvious and avowed intention being to remove ob- 
stacles to reconstruction, and to place Louisiana wholly under 
the control of men who agreed with him as to the manner^ in 
which the state should be ruled. The new Mayor of New 



394 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Orleans — Heath, his appointee — was ordered to re-organize 
the police force, so that at least half of its members should 
be ex-Federal soldiers; and the Levee Commissioners — a 
body wholly non-political, and representing the planters and 
owners of property fronting on the Mississippi, protected by 
levees from overflow — were removed, and men more in sym- 
pathy and accord with his views were appointed in their 
stead. In this matter alone, did tlie general finally recede. 
He had dismissed from these important offices men fully 
acquainted with the levee system of the state, — men who rep- 
sen ted the j)lanters and farmers paying the levee taxes, and 
who were skilled and efficient in their duties. After trying 
his new board three months, finding the state threatened by 
overflow from the June rise, he receded from his position, 
dismissed his own appointees, and reinstated the old board. 

He, before he had been in command very long, removed 
the Gavcrnor of the state, the Street Commissioner of the 
citv, and numerous others. At the same time, he interfered 
with the District Courts in the matter of issuing naturaliza- 
tion papers, exi)ressing the opinion that too many were being 
issued. A final order, just previous to the election of mem- 
bers of the Constitutional Convention, prohibited the assem- 
bling of men, in certain parishes of Louisiana, for j)olitical 
purposes. 

Such were the conditions under which, on September 27th 
and 28th, 1867, an election was held in Louisiana for dele- 
gates to a convention that was to frame a new Constitution 
for the state. With nearly all the state and city officials re- 
moved, and men appointed in their places by the Military 
Commander; with the laws suspended, and public meetings 
prohibited ; with jurisdiction over the naturalization, regis- 
tration and election laws in his hands, the election was placed 
wholly under his control. Not even after the result was 
known, did the removals cease; for the sheriff of Orleans 
Parish was ousted November 16th, and the Lieutenant- 
Governor a few days afterwards. 

The appointment of General Winfield S. Hancock to the 
command of the Fifth Military District, November 29, 1867, 
stopped all these military interferences in purely civil mat- 



EECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. ' 095 

ters. In an order issued December 5th, General Hancock 
gave the true and proper scope and use of military power. 
He declared that justice in the criminal courts had been 
clogged and frustrated by former military orders in regard 
to jurors, and he announced that, in future, trial by jurv, 
habeas corjms, liberty of the press aud freedom of speech 
would be preserved, and not interfered with by the military 
authorities. 

In another order, touching on the frequent differences be- 
tween the civil and military authorities, he laid down this 
doctrine: "The administration of civil justice appertains to 
the civil courts. The rights of litigants do not depend on 
the views of the general commanding this district; they are 
to be adjudged and settled according to the laws. Arbitrary 
power, such as the General has been urged to assume, has no 
existence in this country.'^ 

It is difficult to understand how so self-evident a proposi- 
tion as this could be denied, or a contrary doctrine be insisted 
on and carried out, by General Hancock's predecessor. 

S. B. Packard, afterwards United States Marshal, and 
claimant to the office of Governor of Louisiana in 1876, was 
president of the Board of Registration at the time of the vote 
on the convention, and became engaged in a controv^ersy with 
General Hancock, which resulted in his arrest. The military 
power, as represented by General Hancock, was not progres- 
sive, arbitrary and tyrannical enough to suit the views of 
those who understood the reconstruction acts and military 
rule to be simply for the purpose of placing the Republican 
party, backed by the negro vote, in control of the state. 

The reo^istration which had been carried on under the 
board appointed by Sheridan, and over which Packard pre- 
sided, was wholly in the interest of the Republicans, and was 
so intended to be. All those citizens who, during the war, 
had held any civil offices under the Confederate States, were 
disfranchised ; naturalization papers were disjnited and re- 
fused, aud white voters denied registration. The result was 
to reduce the white registration of the state to 45,218, or 
barely two-thirds of what it ought to have been ; while the 
negro registration, by false personation and repeated enrol- 



396 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

ment, was made to be 84,436, or one voter to every four of 
the colored po})ulation. In New Orleans the 50,456 negroes 
registered 15,020 votes, while of the 140,983 whites, only 
14,890 were registered. Though the white population was 
nearly three to one, the negi'ocs were registered in a ma- 
jority. 

The election which followed under these conditions, April 
17th and 18th, 1868, was an easy and overwhelming victory 
for the party (Republican) which Congress, by its reconstruc- 
tion legislation and its military interference, had intended 
should be placed in control of Louisiana. 

The election of April, 1868, brought an entirely new set 
of men to the front in Louisiana — men who had never been 
heard of before — men who had had no experience whatever 
in public affairs, and many of whom were not citizens, and 
had lived in the state but a very short time. In the Senate, 
there were but half a dozen members of the white race, in 
whose hands the government had wholly been during all the 
time that Louisiana had been a state, and but comparatively 
few whites in the House. In line, tlie new Legislature con- 
sisted mainly of negroes (mostly former slaves) and whites 
who had recently moved into the state— generally of that 
class called carpet-baggers. 

LOOK ON THIS PICTURE, AND ON THIS. 

WAR ! PEACE AND SELF-RULE ! 

1864. 1868. 

General Shepley, acting under General Sheridan, acting under 
government orders, ordered an elec- government orders, ordered an elec- 
tion, declared who should vote, reg- tion, declared who should vote, reg- 
istered the voters, and held the elec- istered the voters, and held the elec- 
tion, tion. 

The electees, in convention, made The electees, in convention, made 

the Constitution of 1864. the Constitution of 1868. 

Mark the vital diffeiences. Shepley acted after the gov- 
ernment had declared war, and Sheridan after the govern- 
ment had declared peace ! 

Shepley acted only on ten per cent, of the state, without 
usurpation, while Sheridan, or whoever was responsible. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 397 

usurped, and was ten-fold more violative of freedom and 
self-government. But Shepley, as we shall see, ^vas justifia- 
ble, while Sheridan had no earthly excuse, but unlawful or- 
ders ! But he had no option ; Congress commanded him to act 
and report that " order reigns in [the Southern] Warsaw '^ ! ' 

V. THE ADVENT OF WARMOTHISM. 

The poliiical '^ gypsy swings his pot and pitches his tent wherever 
there is a prospect of [^political] plunder J^ 

Warmothism and political gypsyism, when analyzed, will be 
found synonymous. Their terrible imj^ort is, in a measure 
seen in the following sketch, made from the vast mass of facts 
— many volumes in extent — which constitute the reconstruc- 
tion history of Louisiana. The intelligent citizen of the state 
will say when he gets through — "the half (or even the tithe) 
has not been told.'^ 

Warmothism operated for eight years. Kellogg (a mere 
incident) could but add to the evil and aggravate its harm. 
His administration was "pork still, with change of sauce;'' as 
will be seen. At the head of the new government and party 
was a young adventurer — a political gypsy, named Henry C. 
Warmoth — who had come to Louisiana in the Federal army 
a short time before, from which he had been, as was credibly 
stated, dismissed for good cause; and who had ingratiated 
himself with the negroes, by organizing them, and insisting 
upon their political rights, long before Congress did so. As 
early as 1866, before the negroes had been granted the elec- 
tive franchise, Warmoth had held a mock election, at which 
they voted, and had had himself returned as a delegate from 
the territory of Louisiana, under universal suffrage. A queer 
attachment to this election, but very characteristic of Warmoth, 
was the placing of boxes at the polls, wdiere the negroes who 
voted could contribute fifty cents each to a fund for paying 
his expenses to Washington to assert his claims. The negroes 
had never exercised the elective franchise before; tliey felt 
honored thereby; and they gladly paid for the privilege of 
voting for Warmoth. 



398 WHY THE SOLID SOUTfl? 

This little episode — while productive of no impoiitant re- 
sults at the time, for Congress promptly rejected his claim, 
based as it was, on the ballots of negrcx^s, on whom it had 
not, as yet, conferred the elective franchise, — made him the 
idol and hero of the negro race; and in the convention which 
followed, he was nominated and, in the subsequent election, 
chosen Governor. 

The ensuing Warmoth regime proved far more oppressive 
and injurious than the previous military rule. 

Under Warmoth, the dictatorship was still more pronounced, 
all the affairs of the state being concentrated in the hands of 
the Governor, at the same time that a system of spoliation 
was organized which, in a comparatively short time, raised the 
taxatiou to the highest limits ever known in America, swelled 
the state debt to many times what it had been before, and re- 
duced the proud commonwealth to unexampled poverty. 

The system of spoliation then orgauized, continued until 
the gang that worked it, quarrelled among themselves over 
the plunder, and fiually turned state's evidence against each 
other. It was in this way alone, that the world was made ac- 
quainted with the evil doings of this conspiracy against the 
people and their treasury. 

The Legislature, elected under military control, assembled 
in New Orleans, June 29, 1868, and Warmoth was 
inaugurated July 13th. The first action of the Legis- 
lature was to shut out the Democratic members by 
a test-oath. The Republicans organized both houses, ap- 
pointed a committee to investigate the claims of the 
Democratic members, and finally seated those they pleased. 
The Democrats admitted, constituted at best, merely a cor- 
poral's guard, unable to obstruct the various jobs which soon 
found their way before the Legislature. 

Recognizing the fact that the election of April, 1868, had 
been carried by suppressing the white vote, and by the fraud- 
ulent registration of the negroes, the Warmoth Legislature, 
in which the Republican influence was overwhelmingly pre- 
dominant, set to woi4v at once to so change the registration 
laws of the state, as to prevent the people from ever over- 
turning the Government at the polls. The general idea of 



EECONSTRUCTIOX IN LOUISIANA. 399 

the Legislature was to concentrate all the election machinery 
in the hands of the Governor. A number of laws of an ex- 
perimeLtal character were passed, and it was some time before 
Warmoth w^as fully satisfied. The election laws of Louisiana 
from 1868 forward, for ten years, were purposed for fraud and 
suppression of the popular will. Her system of registration, 
returning boards, the throwing out of votes, etc., was adopted 
in most of the other Southern states. No better machinery 
for fraud and tyranny was ever conceived ; for with the 
power given to the Governor by the various laws referred to, 
he could name every official and control the state absolutely. 

One of the first acts created a Board of Registration, con- 
sisting of three members, appointed by the Governor, which 
Board had the appointment of the Supervisors in the several 
parishes. Warmoth, wdio was always suspicious, was not 
satisfied with the power of appointing these officials, but 
adopted the precaution which he ever observed, of insist- 
ing upon a blank resignation with every appointment, so that 
if any of the Supervisors of Registration were rebellious, 
or failed to carry out his wishes, they could be removed at 
once by filling in a date to their blank resignations, and 
appointing a more obedient official. There w^as no require- 
ment that the registration officers should be residents of the 
parish in wdiicli they acted, and a great majority of 
them w^ere chosen from New Orleans, from among the large 
number of adventurers to be found in a great city, and some 
even Avere citizens and residents of other states. The Super- 
visors of Registration of a number of parishes had never set 
foot in them before they arrived there to conduct the elec- 
tions ; and, in many cases, these non-residents announced 
themselves as candidates for the Legislature, and returned 
themselves as elected thereto. 

As a further safeguard, and to assure the fidelity of the 
supervisors, they were liberally paid. For example, for 
the partial registration of 1868, the large sum of $147,- 
341.40 was di\'ided among the Board of Registration and the 
employees. 

This registration and election machinery, however, gave 
way before an uprising of the people ; and in the Presiden- 



400 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

tial election which followed that of Warmoth a few months, 
the Republicans were defeated by an overwhelming majority. 
AVhereupon, the Legislature improved on its registration laws, 
and developed the more perfect machinery of the Returning 
Board. By the provisions of the registration and election 
laws, the decision of any Supervisor of Registration on mat- 
ters relating to the registry of voters was final, and not sub- 
ject to revision or correction by any court. The courts were 
indeed prohibited from interfering in any way with these 
Supervisors, or their assistants. And the judge of any court 
so interfering, was subject to a fine of $500 and impeach- 
ment. After the votes were cast, they were counted in 
secret by the Supervisor of Registration, surrounded by his 
appointees, and sealed and sent to the Governor. At a later 
day, still another improvement was added to the election ma- 
chinery, by the creation of a Returning Board, whose duty 
it was to return the vote of the state. If the Commissioners 
of Election, or the Supervisor of Registration of a parish, 
accompanied any report by the statement that there was a 
disturbance, riot, tumult, intimidation or bribery at any poll, 
the Returning Board could, if it saw proper, throw out that 
poll, or the vote of the entire parish. 

This law placed the whole control of the election in the 
hands of the Governor, and enabled him in 1870 to carry the 
state by an overwhelming majority, and even the Democratic 
city of New Orleans. 

The entire legislation of the first General Assembly held 
in Louisiana under the reconstruction acts and the so-called 
Constitution of 1868, was devoted to measures of this kind, 
intended to fortify the Republican party in power, so that it 
could never be ousted ; and the machinery was so very com- 
plete and complicated that a practically unanimous people 
could not have driven the Republicans out, save by a popular 
uprising. 

In addition to the registration and election laws, which, it 
was hoped, would control all elections, police and constabu- 
lary laws were passed, creating a standing army in New Or- 
leans and the parishes, under command of the Governor ; 
and a printing law, which caused the establishment of Re- 



EECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 40I 

publican organs in all the parishes, and gave them a monopoly 
of printing the laws and public advertisements. The police 
control of New Orleans, which had always been in the hands 
of the people, was taken from them and given over to a com- 
mission, appointed by the Governor, and consisting of three 
colored and two white Kepublicans. 

The Legislature of 1868, started with a Republican ma- 
jority, which it increased, from time to time, by ousting 
Democratic members. Of the dominant party, onlv ten were 
tax-payers. Corruption and bribery reigned supreme, and 
the knaves, to avoid any possible danger, refused to pass any 
bribery law, so that it was no crime to bribe a public official. 
Those of them who did not make money in this way, were 
rare exceptions. When Mr. S. W. Scott swore before a Con- 
gressional Committee that he had seen money paid out as 
bribes to the Lieutenant-Governor, Pinchback, and to the 
Speaker of the House, Mortimer Carr, neither denied the 
statement, nor did either cross-examine him. When he 
charged that it cost more to get the signature of the Governor 
to his bill (a subsidy for a railroad) than to get the measure 
through the Legislature, and that it cost eighty thousand dol- 
lars in all. Governor Warmoth entered no protest or denial. 

When, later, these eagles fought over their prey, and exer- 
cised their talons on one another, a series of reciprocal por- 
traitures appeared, which do full justice to the originals. 
Warmoth gave some testimony as to the corruption and 
bribery which prevailed, and the manner in which the spoils 
were divided. Here are his pictures of the most prominent 
men in his party. 

Casey, Collector of Customs, got through the Legislature 
a bill, incorporating a warehouse company, in which he was 
interested, and appropriating §1,400,000 of State Bonds as 
its capital stock. He was also interested in the New Orleans 
Shed Company, which proposed to monopolize the leve'e front ; 
and was custodian of the $18,000 corruption fund raised to 
get this measure through the Legislature. 

Postmaster Lowell worked for the Ship Island Canal bill, 
which appropriated all the swam]) lands in the vicinity of 
New Orleans, for a company in which he was interested. 

26 



402 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Unital States Marshal Packard was interested in the Nich- 
olson Pavement bill, which Governor Warmoth was offered 
§50,000 to sign. 

George W. Carter, Speaker of the House, on account of 
his influence, received an interest in the Louisiana Levee 
Company, which was drawing millions out of the State 
Treasury annually, was the })aid attorney of nearly all the 
railroads requiring legislation, although he never performed 
the slightest service for them beyond pocketing bills which 
they deemed objectionable. He also worked through an aj)- 
propriation of $25,000 a mile for a railroad in which he was 
interested, the Louisiana Transit Company, and secured a 
subsidy of §1,000,000 in bonds for a favorite steamship com- 
pany. 

John Pay, Senator from Ouachita, got §70,000 for revising 
the statutes, besides |54G,000 in State Bonds in aid of a rail- 
road, the Yicksburg and Shreveport, in which he was inter- 
ested. He had, moreover, an interest in the Louisiana Levee 
Company, of which he subsequently became Pj'csident. To 
this company he voted an appropriation of $9,000,000, Avith 
a one per cent, tax for twenty- one years, the company being 
authorized to issue bonds in anticipation of these taxes, which 
bonds the state endorsed and guaranteed. 

Such were the charges made by Warmoth against his asso- 
ciates, and not denied by them. Corruption was believed by 
the public to be universal. The men thus accused were 
equally free in their charges against Warmoth. They pointed 
to the fact, that whereas he had come to Louisiana poor — so 
poor, indeed, that he had been com})elled to appeal to the 
negroes for a charity fund to send him to Washington to 
claim a seat as delegate — he became rich within a year of 
taking office ; and they pointed out that he had concentrated 
in his person, through the registration, election, police and 
other laws, all the powers of the state. 

The Governor could keep an act, passed by the Legislature, 
in his pocket as long as he saw fit, and veto or approve it at 
any time ; and he did, as a matter of fact, on November 20th, 
1872, sign and promulgate a law, which we shall recur to, 
giving him further power over the elections, which had been 



KECOXSTKUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 493 

passed by the Legislature Avhicli had adjourned eight or nine 
mouths before. 

VI. WAKMOTHISM. 

It is difficult to show the exact amount of spoliation under 
Warmoth. The annual expenditures give only a faint idea 
of it. A vast deal was done outside of law, and not recor- 
ded, but became known — suggesting probabilities of much 
undiscovered wrong. The following table gives some idea of 
the profligacy under Warmoth, by comparison with similar 
expenditures under a Democratic administration : 

Cost of Collecting Taxes, $493,324 $52,726 

Cost of Public Printing, 390,000 25,000 

Legislative Expenses, 626,000 37,000 

Average Annual ExjDenses, all purposes, 5,278,915 1,092,931. 

In one year, to collect taxes amounting to §4,136, 118, the 
state tax collectors receiving $493,324, or 12.3 per cent. 
Warmoth's perquisites therein were an unknown quantity, but 
his rapidly increasing wealth seemed to be an index. From 
their knowledge of his greed, his quickness of apprehension and 
his genius for contrivance, Louisianians think that all his tax 
gatherers left with him their blank resignations, and their 
promise to divide fees ,with him. At all events, while the 
writer cannot record as history the fact or the share, he deems 
it good history to say that every thinking man of that plun- 
dered state believes that Warmoth got a large share of the 
fees in question. The statements of his co-conspirators, now 
scattered abroad, would be worth hearing. 
I In a single year, 1871, the legislative expenses were $626,- 
000, and even this was exceeded by an over issue of $200,000 
of fraudulent warrants, making the cost to the state of a 
short session of §6,150 for each legislator. This over issue 
of legislative vouchers forced these warrants down to 2^ 
cents ; yet when the funding board met in 1874, these war- 
rants, bought at two and one-half to five cents on the dollar, 
were funded at par. 

The annual expenditure of the Warmoth government dur- 



404 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

iiicr the four years and five months it was in power, was as 
follows, not including the increase made in the state debt : 

1868, from July, $3,837,877.74 

1869, 4,21)4,677.16 

1870, 7,131,202.11 

1871, 6,425,831.50 

1872, 4,704,983.65 

Total for 4 years and 5 months, .... $26,304, 578.25. 

To this must be added the bonds issued in support of the 
various measures, in which the governor and other Republican 
leaders were interested. It was notorious in that de])lorable 
time that he and they all lobbied on the floor of the Legisla- 
ture in favor of their pet measures, and that every prominent 
member was promoting some bill which he hoped would make 
him rich. Every possible mode of robbing the treasury 
under the forms of law, seemed to have been devised and 
started on the Legislative road, with all possible vigor of 
greed, and with high hopes of success. 

Soon after coming into office. Governor Warmoth called 
attention to the state debt, and to the facility with which it 
could be increased. In his message to the Legislature, Janu- 
ary 4, 1868, he said : *' The total bonded debt, exclusive of 
bonds owned bv the state, is §6,771,300, and this sum is 
further reducible by §871,000. The floating debt is $1,929,- 
500 ; and it is expected that enough can be realized from the 
special one per cent, tax to discharge the entire floating debt, 
and leave a surplus of §500,000.'' "Our debt is smaller 
than that of almost any state in the Union,'' continued War- 
moth, significantly ; ''with a tax roll of $251,000,000, and 
a bonded debt that can at will be reduced to §6,000,000, 
there is no reason that our credit should not be at par." 

Actino- on this suggestion, the Legislature and State officers 
went to work at once to utilize this good credit to the fullest 
extent. The census of 1870 showed the debt of the state to 
have increased to §25,021,734, and that of the parishes and 
municipalities to §28,065,707. Within a year the state debt 
was increased four-fold and the local indedtedness had doubled. 
Louisiana, according to the census, stood, in the matter of debt. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 495 

at the head of tlie Union. With an indebtedness per capita 
of §73.03, the next state to it, the rich coniinonwealth of 
Massachusetts, having a debt of only §47.49 per capita, 
Louisiana's debt was over 20 per cent, of its assessed weakh. 

This, however, was only the beginning of Warmoth's regime 
—i\\Q first year and a half of it. In 1870 bonds to the amount 
of §7,000,000, were issued to the Louisiana Levee Company, 
in which so many of the Republican leaders were interested, 
§500,000 for the state penitentiary, and §474,000 for the 
Mississippi and Mexican Gulf canal. In 1871 bonds to the 
amount of $2,500,000 were issued in aid of the Mobile, New 
Orleans and Texas Railroad. In addition to this the state 
had made itself responsible for the payment of bonds lent to 
the various banks, aggregating §6,579,683, with miscellaneous 
debts of §3,476,269, bringing the total up to §41,733,752.17 
(report of State Auditor, January 1st, 1872). In his message 
to the Legislature, Warmoth, at the same date, estimated dif- 
feiently, and placed the state debt at $41,194,493.91. A 
committee of the Legislature, appointed to investigate the 
matter, found that both the Governor and Auditor were too 
low in their estimates, and, after itemizing the state debt, 
placed it for 1872 at $48,029,349.95. Adding to this the 
parish and municipal obligations, the total indebtedness of 
Louisiana in 1872 was $76,095,056.78. 

Under Warmoth the Republicans had added to the state 
and city indebtedness of Louisiana §54,325,759, with nothing 
whatever to show for it. The cost of these four years and 
five months of misrule was, therefore: 

Money actually expended by state, .... $26,894,578. 

. By local bodies (partly estimated) 25,300,000. 

Increase in debt (state and local), 54,325,759. 

Total cost 4 y'rs and 5 mo's Eepublican misrule, . . $106,020,337. 
Amounting per year to, §24,040,089. 

In a little over four years the Republican party had spent 
nearlv as much in amount as half the wealth of the state. Of 
the bonds issued, a large part bore interest at eight per cent. 

Such profligacy necessarily required a heavy rate of taxa- 
tion. The state tax in 1867, just previous to Warmoth's 



406 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

election, was 3f mills: in 1869 it was raised to 5J; in 1870 to 
7J; in 1871 to 14^; and in 1872 to 21J mills, at which fig- 
ure it remained for some years. The taxation in New Orleans 
which had been 15 mills previous to the election of Warmoth, 
became 23| mills in 1869; 26 J mills in 1870; 27^ mills in 
1871; and finally 30 mills, or 8 percent, in 1873. Some of 
the country parishes fared even worse, and in one case (that 
of Natchitoches) the taxation reached 7.9 percent — much more 
than the average interest on capital invested, or the productive 
power of property. 

But, great as is this total of §106,020,337, spent by War- 
moth and his followers, it does not represent all the depletion 
Louisiana then suffered. To it must be added the privileges 
and franchises given away to favorites, and the state property 
stolen. To one com])any was given all the swamp lands in 
the vicinity of .New Orleans; to another rights and franchises 
on the levee, or river front, of New Orleans, worth hundreds 
of thousands of dollars. And, as if this were not enough, 
the school fund of the several parishes, resulting from the 
appropriations and land donations made by the State and 
Federal Governments, were plundered. In his report for 1873, 
State Superintendent of Education W. F. Brown, a Republi- 
can and a colored man, called attention to some of these 
thefts, as follows : Stolen in Carroll parish, in 1871, §30,000 ; 
in East Baton Rouge, $5,032; in St. Landry, §5,700; in St. 
Martin, §3,786.80; in Plaquemines, §5,855; besides large 
amounts in St. Tammany, Concordia, INIorehouse, and other 
parishes. The entire permanent school fund of the ^^arishes 
disappeared during this period. 

The state had at the time of Warmoth's inauguration a 
trust fund of §1,300,500, for the benefit of the free public 
schools. The bonds which represented this fund — the most 
sacred in the custody of the state — were sold at public auction 
in June, 1872, for §1,096,956.25, and the proceeds, instead of 
being given to the schools, were set aside to pay the warrants 
which had been issued by Warmoth for purposes foreign to 
the legitimate public use, and held by a ring of jobbers and 
brokers who had bought them at a heavy discount. 

In like manner other property belonging to the state was 



RECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 407 

plundered. Louisiana had, in previous years, subscribed to aid 
the construction of various railroads, and held their bonds in 
return therefor. It had §650,000, of the bonds of the New Or- 
leans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad; 35,800 shares 
of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad 
for which it had paid $884,000 ; $298,000 in the Vicksburg^ 
Shreveport and Pacific Railroad; and stock or bonds in the 
New Orleans & Nashville, and the Baton Rouge, Grosse Tete 
& Opelousas Railroads. 

Under Act 16, of 1870, the $884,000 interest of the state 
in the Jackson Railroad was sold for $141,000, or $4 })er 
share; and, under the same act, the interest of New Orleans 
in the same road, nominally $2,000,000, was sold for $320,- 
000. Under Act 81, of 1872, the state's interest in the Ope- 
lousas Railroad was exchanged for warrants at 65 cents on the 
dollar. When, however, the autliorities examined these bonds, 
preparatory to selling them, they found that the treasury had 
been despoiled of a great many of them by previous wrono-- 
doers, and it was morev^er, ascertained that interest had been 
paid regularly on the stolen bonds, although they were known 
to be stolen, and in the hands of the thieves. The money ob- 
tained from selling these and other trust funds, was set aside 
for the payment of warrants or in aid of various projects in 
which Warmoth and Ids followers were interested. According 
to a report of a committee of the Legislature, the slate held in 
1865, in trust funds, state bonds, collections, etc., $8,244,468.24, 
and the municipalities, parishes, and school districts, about 
$4,000,000 more. By the end of Warmoth's regime, all these 
funds had disappeared, a large portion of them being openly 
stolen, and the rest squandered or divided among thecons})ira- 
tors. This brings the spoliation, or embezzlement, or stealage, 
or whatever it may be called, up to nearly one hundred and 
twenty millions, or more than half the wealth of the state. 

By act 49 of 1869, New Orleans was authorized to issue 
bonds for the retirement of certain notes and indebtedness. 
The bonds were issued, but only $1,500 of the notes were 
retired, the money being misappropriated to other purposes, 
$805,000 going for the support of the Metropolitan Police, 
or state constabulary, which Warmoth entirely depended on 



408 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

for the defense of his government against an oppressed and 
plundered people. 

Space can be given to only a few more of the almost 
innumerable jobs or swindles that marked that regime. In 
1864, in the last year of tlie war, a Mr. 'Weil furnished the 
state with supplies, for which he received certificates of the 
state government to the amount of §le50,000. These certifi- 
cates were presented to Warmoth, and he was asked whether 
he wouid sign an act validating them, if it were passed by 
the Legislature. He replied that it could not be done, as the 
Legislature could not constitutionally validate a confederate 
claim. The Legislature subsequently authorized Mr. Weil to 
sue the state for tiie money, and Warmoth vetoed the bill ; 
but when the auditor's report came out, it was found that the 
W^eil claim had been funded by Warmoth's funding commis- 
sioners, and that AVarmoth himself had been one of them. 
It was stated that he as Governor signed the bill making the 
settlement and ai)propriation before the Speaker of the House 
had done so. It became a law Saturday night, and the bonds 
for settlement were handed over on Monday morning early. 
It w^as this claim that Thomas C. Anderson, of Returning 
Board fiime, who was then a Senator, had bought for §10,- 
000, and had lobbied through the Legislature. How far he 
and Warmoth may have co-operated and divided it all, can 
only be surmised. 

Warmoth received $100,000 worth of stock in the Missis- 
sippi and Mexican Gulf Canal, for which, according to his 
own testimony, he did not pay a dollar ; yet he lobbied 
through the Legislature and signed a bill giving $480,000 of 
state bonds to this company, of which he was one of the lar- 
gest stockholders. 

The public printing of the state, in English and French, 
had, in previous years, cost about $37,000 a year. During 
the first two years and a half of Warmoth's regime^ the New 
Orleans Republican, in which he was the principal stockholder, 
received $1,140,881.77 for public printing. 

His gathering the reins of autocratic power, as he did do, 
through his election, registration and Returning-Board laws, 
necessitated that concomitant — his standing army. Act No. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 499 

74 of 1870, known as the constabulary law, gave the power 
to appoint one chief constable in every parish, he to have the 
right to appoint as many deputies '^ashe might deem fit." 
The chief and deputy constables received commissions from 
the Governor, and were by this Act '^ subject to his orders " 
^' to make arrests, quell riots, etc." The Governor could send 
the constabulary from one parish to another, whenever 
necessary. Their pay was large — 13 and §4 a day, and the 
parishes were required to provide it from the parish taxes. 

By Act 92 of 1869, Warmoth and the Legislature had 
created another armed force, known as the Metropolitan police. 
This body was controlled by a commissioner, appointed and 
removable by the Governor. Originally intended for the city 
of New Orleans and vicinity, its jurisdiction or field of service 
was extended to the entire state ; and it was sent to various 
parishes by order of the Governor. It was armed with rifles 
and revolvers ; and supplied with Gatling and Napoleon 
guns ; and a portion of it was mounted on cavalry. After- 
wards, under Kellogg, this force of infantry, cavalry and 
artillery was added to by the purchase of vessels, thus pro- 
viding Louisiana with a navy as well as a standing armv, 
This army alone cost the state $847,395 for 1869 ; §887,8o0 
for 1870, and averaged about that amount thereafter. 

Having secured the control of the elections, and created a 
standing army, Warmoth's next step was to obtain possession 
of the judiciary, so as to prevent any judicial interference 
with his schemes. The Constitution of 1868 provided for 
the election of the judges. This trouble was easily circum- 
vented by the Legislative creation of two new courts, one civil 
and the other criminal — the two having jurisdiction over all 
public matters ; and the vesting of the power of appointing 
the judges in the Governor. Of course he appointed his 
own creatures, taking their blank resignations, so that he 
could remove them if they failed to suit him, thus rendering 
any judicial interference with himself impossible. All cases 
of a public character, all contests for offices, writs of quo 
warranto, &c., &c., had to be submitted to his judicial appoin- 
tees and obedient servants. 

By these laws he had obtained a complete dictatorship over 



410 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

Louisiana. Any state official who resisted hini was removed. 
The Secretary of State, Geo. E. Bovee, who had been elected 
on the same ticket with him, and who was a Constitutional 
officer, was removed by him because of a quarrel. He sent 
his chief of police to the state-house, who ejected Bovee and 
installed the new appointee. General Herron. Bovee objected, 
but Warmoth's police was too strong. He appealed to the 
courts, but his claim was rejected by Warmoth's judges. It 
was conceded thenceforth that the Governor could remove 
whom he pleased, and that there was no appeal against his 
mandates. Of the other state officials elected with him, the 
Lieutenant-Governor, Dunn, a negro, died, and the Auditor, 
J. C. Wickliffi?, was impeached for embezzlement and crimes 
in office ; and he fled from the state. 

In 1870, the new election law was tried, and found to 
effect all that it was designed for. The city of New Orleans 
was turned over to the mercies of Warmothism. Its popula- 
'tion was three white to one colored, and it was overwhelm- 
ingly Democratic, voting against Warmoth, even in 1868, 
when more than half its white citizens were disfranchised; 
yet with the election machinery, he was able to carry the 
city by a majority of from six to eight thousand. His 
Supervisors of Kegistration worked nearly a week in private 
on the votes, and finally returned thirteen of the fifteen 
wards of the city, all with overwhelming white majorities, as 
Republican, and counted in among the hundred and odd 
electees, but four or five Democrats. New Orleans and the 
State of Louisiana were both now in AYarmoth's hands. 

The election of 1870 marked the summit of his power. 
At no time in the history of America, even in the South 
American States, had any man made himself so complete a 
dictator. But, over the spoils, arose the inevitable quarrel, 
and the two factions formed went heartily into their only 
good work, which was to acquaint Louisiana and the world 
with their rascalities and infamy, and make manifest the gross 
wrono; of cono;ressional reconstruction. 

To the unexampled profligacy and corruption were now 
added frequent disturbances and riots^ caused by their feud. 
The two factions kept up their fight from 1871 to 1873. 



EECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 411 

The anti-Warmothites were called the Ciistom-hoiise Repub- 
licaos, as they were maiDly the federal officials in the Custom 
House. 

The Republican Convention of 1871 met in the District 
Court-room in the Custom House, a large body of deputy 
Marshals, backed by a company of soldiers, surrounding the 
court-room, and refusing admittance to Warmoth and his fol- 
lowers. The fight was renewed when the Legislature assem- 
bled in extra session to choose a Lieutenant-Governor, in the 
place of Dunn ; and again at the regular session in January, 
1872. Carter, the Speaker, who was anti-Warmoth, was un- 
seated by the Warmoth Legislators. The Custom-house 
faction turned the tables by procuring warrants for the arrest 
of Governor Warmoth, Lieutenant-Governor Pinchback and 
eighteen members of the House, all friends of Warmoth; and 
these arrests were made by the United States Deputy Mar- 
shals in the State Capitol. The Custom-house faction having 
won this victory, adjourned to Friday. Hardly had the 
House adjourned, when the Governor issued a proclamation 
calling the Legislature together in extra session, to meet the 
same afternoon (Thursday), only the Warmoth men being 
notified of this. They met, elected a new Speaker, and ex- 
pelled Carter from the Legislature. The Custom-house 
faction, which learned of this only the next day, tried to 
enter the capitol, but were prevented from doing so by a large 
force of police, armed with rifles, and they proceeded to a 
bar-room and organized in its hall. 

This ^'war of the roses'^ caused disquiet and apprehension 
everywhere, as well as disturbances of the peace aud riots. 
The Sergeants-at-Arms of the two Legislatures scoured the 
city with armed assistants, arresting members wherever found. 
One of the Representatives, Walter Wheyland, was killed 
while resisting arrest. Large bodies of armed men paraded 
the streets. A mob from the Custom-house faction, to 
arm themselves broke into several armories and gun-shops. 
The situation reached a very critical condition January 22d, 
when a great battle between the two factions seemed immi- 
nent. George W. Carter, who claimed to be Speaker of the 
Custom-house Legislature, issued a proclamation, calling upon 



412 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

all citizens "to organize and arm themselves as well as they 
were able, and report to him, when they would be sworn in 
as Assistant Sergeants-at-Arms/' 

Governor Warmoth, on his part, fully equipped and armed 
his standing army, the Metropolitan Police, stationed them in 
position in the vicinity of the State House, immediately op- 
posite Carter's army, and prepared for battle. A great 
struiTirle seemed imminent, when General Emory, in command 
of the United States forces, acting under instructions from 
President Grant, interfered, and informed both Warmoth and 
Carter that he had received instructions from Washington to 
suppress all conflicts between armed bodies that might occur. 
This refusal of the Federal Government to interfere in their 
behalf, demoralized the Custom-house party, which had been 
led to expect assistance, and they rapidly dispersed, leaving 
Warmoth master of the situation. 

It was a barren victory, however. After the bitterness 
that had been shown, and the blood that had been shed, it 
was impossible to bring the factious together again ; and two 
distinct Republican ])arties thenceforward antagonized each 
other in Louisiana, the National and Liberal Republicans. 
The Democrats saw their opportunity, and obtained from 
Warmoth a pledge that the approaching election of 1872 
would be honestly conducted, and the vote counted as cast. 
This was granted as a si>ecial favor by Warmoth, it being 
understood by all, tliat had he decreed differently, it lay 
within his power to declare any persons elected he saw fit. 

The first contest of the factions was over the control of the 
Legislature, and therein Warmoth was too shrewd for his 
enemies. A second was over the election of 1872. Sorely 
needing help, he sought an alliance with the Democrats, 
and promised them, among other things, that they should 
have a fair election, and that the registration and election 
laws should not be used against them as had been done in 
1870. 

Two full state and legislative tickets were placed in the 
field — the Fusion ticket, headed by John M'Enery, which 
depended for its main support upon the Democrats ; but which 
was also backed by Warmoth ; and the regular Republican 



EECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 413 

ticket, headed by W. P. Kellogg, who had represented Louis- 
iana in the Senate. 

The election was held November 4, 1872, under the regis- 
tration and election laws which Waraioth had used with such 
effect against the Democrats two years before ; the supervisors 
of registration made returns to AVarmoth and the Secretary 
of State, and they turned them over to the Returnino- Board 
which then began to acquire its national prominence. 

When that Board met, the Secretary of State, Ilerron, wa, 
suspected, and therefore supplanted, by Warmoth, with Jack 
Wharton, which made the latter an ex-officio member of the 
Board. On the legality of this change the result of the elec- 
tion depended, for the Returning Board consisted of three 
members, the Governor, Lynch and the Secretary of State — 
the latter having the deciding vote. The Board soon split 
into two, Warmoth and Wharton acting as one, and fillino- 
the vacancies by election ; and Lynch and Herron organizing 
another. 

Both Boards went into the Eighth District Court, the 
political court created by Warmoth to further his own ends ; 
but the Judge had lately turned against him, and the Lvnch 
party obtained an injunction in its favor prohibiting the 
Warmoth Board from counting the votes. The question also 
went into the United States Circuit Court, on the claim that 
some ten thousarnd persons had been denied registration, and 
that some three thousand to five thousand neg-roes had been 
deprived of their right to vote. 

This case — Kellogg vs. Warmoth — could not have in- 
volved the validity of either Board, but Judge Durell 
chose to usurp jurisdiction, and held that the Lynch Board 
was the legal one, and issued a number of orders and in- 
junctions in its favor, notably the remarkable one soon to be 
presented. 

He prohibited the other Board from canvassing the vote ; 
prohibited McEnery from acting, or pretending to act, as 
Governor; and prohibited the official journal from publisliing 
any announcement of the election emanating from the War- 
moth Board. 

The Governor countervailed this by pulling out of his safe 



414 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

an Act passed by the Legislature before it acljourned, many 
months before, which he had neither signed nor vetoed ; and 
he now signed and promulgated it, thereby creating an entirely 
new Returning Board, the members of which lie had the 
powTr to appoint. These appointments were made ; the new 
Board met, canvassed the vote, and declared, on December 
4th, just one month after the election, that McEnery and the 
entire Fusion ticket were elected. 

On the succeeding night came a clap of thunder. At mid- 
night, on December 5th, Durell, the United States District 
(acting as Circuit) Judge, in the presence of Kellogg's coun- 
sel, one of them the United States District Attorney, and one 
other person, handed out his famous midnight order to Pack- 
ard, United States ^larshal. It was generally said and 
believed that the judge was intoxicated, his signature being 
referred to as one of the evidences. 

This order or edict was unquestionably the most remarkable 
ever issued in America. On the })retence that Warmoth had 
committed contempt of his court, the United States Marshal 
was ordered to take possession of the state-house and hold it 
at his (DurelFs) will, and to prevent all unlawful assemblages 
therein. 

The Republican party of the country seemed to disavow 
the judge's action and denounce him, threatening impeach- 
ment, etc., whereupon he left the bench ; but said party 
never made any attem])t to right Louisiana's wrong. Of this 
order, the Republican Senate Committee, which investigated 
the matter, said : 

" It is impossible to conceive of a more irregular, illegal 
and in every way inexcusable act on tlie part of the judge. 
Conceding the power of the court to make such an order, the 
judge, out of court, had no more authority to make it than 
the marshal. It has not even the form of judicial }>rocess. 
It was not sealed nor was it signed by the clerk, and had no 
more legal effect than an order issued by any private citizen.'' 

Let us add to this Republican committee's report, the state- 
ment of that most eminent and able of Republican senators, 
Hon. M. H. Carpenter, of Wisconsin : " The testimony shows 
that he went to his lodgings, and about 11 o'clock at night, he 



EECOXSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 415 

issued this order to seize the state-house. . . . The marslial exe- 
cuted that order, aud a company of Federal troops garrisoiied 
fhe state-bouse at midnight, and held it in military custody 
for more than six weeks, during which time the farce of 
organizing the Legislature on a mandamus of the same judo-e 
was enacted. ^^ He says further that while the state-house 
remained in such custody, this Legislature elected Pinchback 
United States Senator ; and that it was under such process of 
this court, and while the state-house was thus federally held, 
that the Kellogg Legislature was organized on the basis of the 
Lynch board's count — which we may add was no count, as it 
had no votes or returns whatever to count. 

Under Durell's order, however, two companies of United 
States artillery took possession of the Louisiana State Capitol, 
ousting the police and state troops, and allowing no one to enter 
the building except on an order from the United States Marshal. 

Within a few hours, the Lynch Returning Board promul- 
gated the alleged returns of the election, although it did not 
have a single return or ballot or scrap of legal evidence 
before it, declaring Kellogg elected by 18,861 majority, and 
the Legislature to be 106- Republicans to 40 Democrats. 
This result was obtained by pure guessing, as Lynch, the 
President of the so-called Board explained : *' We took all the 
evidence we had before us, and our knowledge of the parishes 
and their political complexion, and then ice decided. I think 
on the whole we w^re pretty correct. '^ 

Among the data on which this honest board based its con- 
jecturing and guessing canvass, were many hundreds of affida- 
vits which were subsequently proved to be fraudulent and 
forged by the man who manufactured most of them. 

The United States troops guarded the State Capitol aud pre- 
vented the ingress of any person except the Lynch Legislature. 
That body met, impeached Warmoth inside of five minutes, 
removed him from office, installed Pinchback as Goveruor 
and appealed to the Federal Government for more troops. 
Kellogg and his supporters asked the President for recogni- 
tion ; and finally the order came commanding the troops to 
sustain Pinchback as Governor and the Lynch Legislature 
against all opposition. 



416 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The writer must here say that in a sketch like tliis, not a 
tithe of the terrible facts can be given nor can proper refer- 
ence to authorities be made, except in a general way at the 
conclusion ; but it is well here to refer for important data, to 
the telegraphic correspondence between New Orleans and 
Washington, in " McPherson's Handbook of Politics for 
1874/' pp. 100 to 108; also /cL pp. 129, 142; and to the 
report of the Senate Conmiittee on privileges and elections, 
session 1873-4. 

Thus Federal power installed the Kellogg Government, 
which had never been elected, but did not give peace or order 
thereby. Kellogg, in some sort, served out his term, but his 
rule was never recognized, except when backed by Federal 
bayonets; and much friction, controversy, quarreling and 
even bloody conflicts were rife in all the state, because of 
rival claims to office. 

Kellogg seemed disposed to encourage disturbances of this 
kind, as they justified his calling upon the Federal Govern- 
ment for troops; and, moreover, diverted the attention of the 
people from the fact that he had no title to tlie Governorship. 
The two boards had declared two sets of officers, in the most 
of the parishes, and Kellogg is said to have issued two sets 
of commissions in some instances, leaving it to tlie rivals, as 
he was reported to have said, '' to fight it out." 

By producing such contentions and conflicts, he "^might 
hope for a continuance of Federal aid, and keep the Federal 
power constantly impressed with the two rival governments, 
and its obligation to vindicate one of them ! 

It was this policy which brought about the Colfax riot, in 
which so many lives were lost. In Grant parish, of Avhich 
Colfax is the seat of justice, two tickets claimed to be elected. 

Kellogg encouraged both parties, first commissioning the 
Nash ticket, as shown in the official paper, the Republican, 
and at the same time, or afterwards, commissioning the Shaw 
ticket. Nash was in possession of the Court House ; Shaw 
seized and occupied it in the night time, just as Kellogg had 
done the State House, and summoned the negroes of the 
parish to Colfax to act as a posse to protect him in office. 
For three weeks Colfax was in wild excitement. Some 500 



EECOXSTKUCTION IX LOUISIANA. 417 

negroes crowded into the town, armed themselves, drilled 
erected fortifications, and constructed cannon from gas-pipes. 
Occasionally they raided the surrounding couutry for provi- 
sions. The whites, alarmed, congregated in the vicinity of 
the town, all well armed. 

It w^as quite evident that a serious conflict was threatened. 
Kellogg was appealed to, and asked to interfere and prevent 
the riot that was otherwise inevitable. He had ample time, 
— three weeks — to do this, but declined to interfere. He 
hoped, indeed, that in the fight the negroes would be victori- 
ous — such was the view expressed by the official paper, the 
Republican— and even if they did not prove so, their defeat 
would affi)rd him an excuse for appealing for Federal protec- 
tion. ^' The time is past,'' said the Republican, " when a 
handful of whites can frighten a regiment of colored men." 

On Easter Sunday, April 1.3th, 1873, Sheriff Xash, with a 
posse of whites, undertook to recapture the Court House, 
which was then held by an illegal body of negroes, for Shaw, 
the other claimant of the Shrievalty, under whose call the 
negroes had assembled in Colfax, had long since deserted 
them. The fight over the Court House wa.s a long and bitter 
one, 63 persons — white and black — losing their lives, and the 
building itself being destroyed by fire in the battle. 

VII. WARMOTH-KELLOGGISM. ^ 

This was but one of a dozen similar, but less bloody, en- 
counters which occurred in the state, in the contest over the 
offices, and wdiich were encouraged by the Governor, to win 
him support in the North and the use of Federal troops. 

A large majority of the people of the state never recog- 
nized Kellogg's election, and he found himself constrained to 
organize a force for a series of expeditions to establish his 
authority. The Metropolitan Police force was still further 
strengthened and increased to three thousand men, and nuis- 
tered into the militia of the state. To aid them in their in- 
vasions of the country parishes, two steamers were purchased, 
and became the nucleus of a state navy. Although nomi- 
nally the police force of New Orleans, and paid out of the 
27 



418 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

city treasury, this standing army of metropolians was wholly 
nnder the control of the Governor, and could be ordered by 
him to any portion of the state on military duty. One of the 
first expeditions undertaken was to the pai'ish of St. Martin, 
the property owners of which refused to recognize Kellogg 
as Governor or to pay their taxes to him. A force of several 
hundred "metropolitans,'' mounted as cavalry, and armed 
with Springfield rifles and cannon, were sent on the state 
steamer " Ozark" to St. Martinsville, to arrest the men who had 
defied Kellogg's authority. The expedition was a fiiilure, 
and the ''metropolitans," after remaining several days in the 
field, and exchanging shots with the natives, ''inarched down 
again" to New Orleans. The leaders of the tax-resisters were 
subsequently arrested by a United States IMarshal, on blank 
warrants, charging them with blank crimes against blank per- 
sons, and brought to New Orleans before a United States 
Commissioner; and then discharged, because — to use his own 
words — "there is no proof to justify the detention of the 
prisoners." "The affidavits were made without a just cause." 
But, said Dogberry, consolingly, though "the defendants 
have been unjustly put to all this trouble and expense, yet this 
is a sacrifice they must be content to endure for the good of 
the body politic." He was one of the carpet-baggers, but is 
now esteemed by Louisiana as one of her "true patriots," for 
he has "left the country." 

These refusals to pay the taxes to the Kellogg Government 
seriously incommoded it, and the Legislature, in consequence, 
passed a series of tax laws of the most stringent character. 
The most extraordinary of these contained a provision that 
any property-holder, failing to pay his taxes within thirty 
days of the time they fell due, forfeited thereby his right to 
bring: suit for his own benefit, or to be a witness for or in his 
own behalf; and every court, having jurisdiction within the 
state, was ordered to deny and refuse to issue a civil process of 
any kind or nature for him, until he procured a certificate that 
all his delinquent taxes and costs had been paid. 

All the iniquitous legislation of the Warmoth regime, such 
as the registration and election laws, and the Returning Board, 
were continued, and even improved on. Kellogg went a 



RECOXSTKUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 419 

step further in the matter of the collection of taxes, and also 
in the selection of juries. It was deemed especially necessary 
to monopolize the administration of the criminal law of the 
state, and the Governor, therefore, secured, through an act of 
the Legislature, control of the criminal courts by creatino- a 
new one, with exclusive jurisdiction in certain matters; and 
was given, at the same time, control of the jury, a Commis- 
sion, consisting of two members, appointed by him, and serv- 
ing at his will, having full control of drawjjjg all juries. 
This was followed by a law making it a crime for any one to 
claim to be an officer of the state unless declared elected by 
the Returning Board. 

Such legislation, the Republicans thought, increased their 
strength, so that they could henceforward do as they pleased. 
They could, however, do little more in the way of issuino- 
bonds, as, owing to the enormous debt, they were worth but 
twenty-five per cent. Under these circumstances, a happy 
device was invented by Kellogg, and put in practicable shape, 
Avhich was to heavily scale the debt, and begin anew. It was, 
therefore, reduced forty per cent., and, in the funding and 
exchange for new bonds, which it was provided should be 
done by the chief officers of the administration, many frauds, 
and speculations, (almost equally criminal with simple frauds), 
were proved to have been committed — many being detailed 
in legislative and official reports not long afterwards. One 
of them — an enormity — requires a more extended notice, be- 
cause it shows the possibilities of Congressional reconstruction 
and political gypsy ism combined; and teaches us an invaluable 
lesson — unless the gods, aiming to destroy us, have made us 
mad. This funding board, having discretionary power, funded 
some $6,000,000 of bonds alleged to have been fraudulent, 
as a very large amount of them were proved to have been. 
It was charged, and generally believed, that some of these 
chief officers combined with brokers and speculators in buy- 
ing up fraudulent and dishonored securities, and warrants of 
doubtful validity, at very low rates, and funding and ex- 
changing them for new bonds ; and it was said and believed 
that the net profits of the transaction were about, or over, 
$3,000,000. 



420 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

The facts would have come out a year or two later, when 
the Democrats came into power, but for their finding that 
George B. Johnson, the Auditor under Kellogg, had taken 
away or embezzled all the books of the office, containing the 
evidence of the bonds, &c., funded, thus making it impossible 
to expose fully the frauds that might have been committed, 
or to discriminate between the good and the bad debt. A 
committee of the Legislature, which investigated this fund- 
ing, found tl^it this important body, though its duty was to 
fund the many millions of the state debt, and though it was 
trusted with control and issuance of many millions of dollars 
of State Bonds, had no office of its own, and no fixed ])lace 
of business ; but met, from time to time, in different offices 
in the state-house and elsewhere. On one occasion it met in 
New York, and did some business in funding fraudulent secu- 
rities, as afterwards transpired. It kept but a meagre and 
imperfect journal of its proceedings, and even this was full 
of interlineations, alterations and corrections in different 
handwriting, with blank places left here and there, as if for 
filling up with additional matter. The legislative committee 
found it impossible to determine what bonds were destroyed, 
or what new ones had been issued, nor could they feel assured 
that a large number, or even all of those funded, had not 
been reissued. The opportunities for fraud can be easily im- 
agined, while detection and even knowledge of its extent were 
forefended by the destruction or embezzlement of all the records. 

The opportunities for spoliation were passing away. The 
state had been so impoverished that it was impossible to 
wring as much money from it as before, and the assessment 
during the last two years of Kellogg's regime reached the 
lowest limit known since 1830. 

Despite all his stringent laws, Kellogg never exercised full 
dominion over Louisiana. Collisions between the metropoli- 
tans and constabulary and the people, frequently occurred, 
and severe battles took place in the streets of New Orleans. 
How weak and hollow the government was, soon became 
evident. Thanks to the United States troops and the metro- 
politans, Kellogg had preserved a semblance of power ; but a 
single defeat annihilated his government in a few hours. 



EECUNSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 421 

In the campaign of 1874 the white people of Lonisiana 
organized under the name of the White League. In Xew 
Orleans this League proposed to arm itself. KeHoctr^ ^vho 
thought himself stronger than he really was, attempted to 
prevent this preparation, and to seize arms belonging to pri- 
vate individuals. The crisis was reached September 14tli, 
1874, when Kellogg attempted to prevent the landing of 
arms from the steamer ** Mississippi," and the White League to 
secure them. He ordered his entire police force to the river 
front, stationed his cannon on the levee, and stationed cav- 
alry in the adjacent streets. He had two regiments of me- 
tropolitans, under Generals Longstreet and Badger, on Canal 
Street, the principal thoroughfare of the city, besides a regi- 
ment of militia at the state-house. His police marched on 
the citizens ; the two forces met on the levee, and a bloody 
battle ensued, in which forty were killed and one hundred 
wounded. 

The hollowness of the Kellogg government became at once 
conspicuous. In twenty-four hours, and without another 
drop of bloodshed, the Kellogg state and parish governments 
were overthrown throughout Louisiana, and the officials 
elected on the McEnery ticket installed. Nowhere did any 
one, white or black, attempt to support Kellogg, or make the 
slis: litest resistance to the chang-e. He himself fled to the 
custom-house, and his officers dispersed everywhere. This 
change lasted but a few days. From the custom-house, Kel- 
logg appealed to the President for assistance. The United 
States officer in command at New^ Orleans, wos instructed to 
interfere in his behalf, and to reseat him in the gubernatorial 
chair. At the head of the Federal troops he captured the 
State-house, and Kellogg resumed his government surrounded 
by bayonets. But although reinstated, his government was 
weaker and more tottering than ever, and without the spirit 
it had previously shown. 

In the election of 1874, which followed soon after, the 
Democrats sw^ept the state, and secured a good majority in 
the Legislature. Again the Returning Board interfcrGd, 
and, by throwing out many polls and a number of parisiies, 
manufactured a Republican Legislature. 



422 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

When the Legislature met, the Democrats secured control 
of the House, whereupon Kellogg adopted his old trick, and 
called on the Federal officer in command, Gen. DeTrobriand, 
to interfere. A company of armed soldiers then entered and 
took possession of the Legislative hall, and, at the dictation 
of the Governor, a number of Democrats who had been 
elected, were arrested and marched out of the state -house 
between squads of armed soldiers. For days it looked as 
thouirh a serious riot was imminent, for larjxe crowds of ex- 
cited citizens collected around the state-house. The pres- 
ence of the United States troops alone prevented a collision 
and the overthrow of the Kellogg government. 

When the matter was finallv investi<i:ated bv a Cono:res- 
sional Committee, a majority of which were Republicans, and 
over which Wheeler, subsequently Republican candidate for 
the Vice-Presidency, presided, it denounced in strong but 
proper terras the action of the Returning Board, and declared 
a majority of the Democratic members of the House elected. 
The Wheeler compromise, hov/ever, ouly postponed the fiual 
collapse ; it could not give life or power to the Kellogg gov- 
ernment, and as the election of 1876 drew nigh, it became 
more and more evident that the only hope of the Louisiana 
Republicans lay in a large force of United States troops. 

These troops had been used in 1872 in seizing the state 
capitol, ousting Warmoth and installing the Lynch Return- 
ing Board ; they were used again in keeping Pinch back in 
the gubernatorial office, and in dispersing the McEnery 
Legislature; they had installed Kellogg as Governor, and 
defended the state-house until his government was in work- 
ing order. Again, in 1873, these troops were called on 
when the metropolitans had failed to arrest the white leaders 
in St. Martin, and Gen. De Blanc and others were arrested by 
the United States marshals, and brought to New Orleans. 
They were called into use in arresting the Grant parish pris- 
oners, and raiding other parishes and bringing a number of 
their leading citizens to New Orleans. United States troops 
dispersed, on Sept. 17th, 1874, the McEnery state government, 
which had been installed by the people, and reinstated Kel- 
logg; they invaded the state-house again in January, 1875, 



EECONSTEUCTION IX LOUISIANA. 493 

dispersed the legal Legislature, arresting and ousting a num- 
ber of members. 

These frequent military interferences strengthened Kellogg 
in the idea that he could use the United States troops, and 
that his government depended on them for its existence. His 
telegrams to Washington were always for more troops, and 
still more troops, and his instructions to the Generals, com- 
manding, showed that he deemed them under his command. 
Here are some of his instructions to General De Trobriand : 
"Please move your troops up to the State House.'^ 

''Please place sentinels at the entrance of the State House." 

"An illegal assembly of men having taken possession of 
the House of Pepresentatives, and the ])olice being unable to 
dislodge them, I respectfully request that you immediately 
clear the Hall and State House of all persons not returned as 
legal members by the Peturning Board of the state. The 
clerk will point out to you the persons returned by the legal 
Board.^' 

Kellogg w^as thus the commanding officer of the United 
States forces in Louisiana, and the latter performed all the 
duties of a state police force or constabulary. 

Gen. P. H. Sheridan, who had been sent to Louisiana to 
view the situation, in his telegram to the Secretary of A\'ar, 
suo^o-ested that confidence and fair deal in 2; could be established 
in Louisiana by the arrest and trial of the ringleaders of the 
armed White Leae:ues. He urs^ed that thev should be declared 
banditti, and tried by a military commission. " It is possi- 
ble," he telegraphed, "that if the President would issue a 
proclamation declaring them banditti, no further action would 
be taken, except that which would devolve on me." 

Gfen. Sheridan, innocent of political guile, was, as the 
writer saw, surrounded by a living, sentient, greedy and cun- 
ning wall, interested to keep from him the truth, and to pre- 
serve the status quo. They had convinced him, and, induced 
him to so inform the government, that 1500 murders of 
union-men and negroes — political murders — had been com- 
mitted in Louisiana since 1868. This writer, deeply anxious 
for his commonwealth, but belonging to no party, careiully, 
but quietly investigated, in two or three of the parishes where 



424 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

he had the best of means of getting the truth. As to one of 
them, he wrote thus to the Picayune^ January 11th, 1875: 
" If he will come [to Plaquemines Parish] and ask the negroes 
for aid [in gathering statistics] he will get many facts that will 
not quadrate with his theory ; ... he will find a score of 
murders of negroes in this parish, within the last year, most 
brutally done by negroes, while not a negro has been killed 
by a white man." 

The above telegram received the approval of the President; 
and, with such a display of spirit, and the probability that it 
would be backed by adequate military force, the Louisiana 
Republicans decided to make the campaign of 1876 a military 
one. Between 500 and 600 persons had been arrested in the 
state at various times during Kellogg's rigimey and brought 
by the United States troops or marslials to New Orleans. 
They had suffered great losses thereby, had been taken from 
their business and imprisoned ; but, in every instance, when 
the cases against them were examined in court, all charges 
against them were dismissed. Many parishes suffered from 
these wholesale arrests, which were generally made on blank 
warrants. 

VIII. THE FINAL STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY. 

The campaign of 1876 was more excited and bitter than 
any of its predecessors, and the Kellogg government used its 
influence with the Federal Administration as far as possible. 
North Louisiana, in which the population was more largely 
white and Democratic, was filled with United States Marshals, 
accompanied by posses of soldiers. Citizens were arrested 
without cause, carried several hundred miles to New Orleans, 
and after long delay and great expense, they were set at liberty 
without even a preliminary hearing. These arrests were made 
on a great variety of charges. A number of citizens were 
dragged to jail because they were alleged to have discharged 
colored employees who supported the oppressive Kellogg gov- 
ernment. 

Gov. Kellogg prepared for the election of 1876 by sending 
State and Federal officials to the parishes to conduct the reg- 



KECONSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 425 

istration and count the votes. Clover, who had manafred a 
snake show in New Orleans, went to Baton Rouge as supervi- 
sor of elections, after having made a written contract with 
Nash, the Republican candidate for Congress, that he was to 
receive the place of naval officer for New Orleans, in case he 
managed the election well. James E. Scott, a clerk in the 
New Orleans post-office, went to Claiborne as supervisor, 
counted the vote there, threw out five polls, and returned to 
New Orleans to fill his clerkship again. James E. Anderson 
employed in the United States Custom House, went as super- 
visor of registration to East Feliciana, and so it was with 
nearly all the country supervisors. They were mostly Federal 
employees, who had never before been in the parishes where 
they were to hold the election. 

Many of the New Orleans supervisors, also, were Federal 
officials. W. J. Moore, of the seventh ward, was not only 
supervisor, but held two Federal offices at the same time, 
having a regular clerkship, besides receiving pay as night 
inspector. P. J. Maloney in the fourteenth, H. Leon in the 
eighth. Napoleon Underwood in the twelfth, A. J. Brion in 
the second, R. C. Howard in the fourth, and, indeed, with 
few exceptions, all the other registratian and election officers 
were Federal officials 

It was shown in the case of Anderson of East Feliciana, 
that a regular contract signed and witnessed, was made between 
him and the negro candidate for Congress, Nash, as to tlie 
election in the parish, over which he had charge, and it is 
presumable that similar contracts were made with other 
supervisors. 

At no time in the history of Lousiana, not even in the first 
days of reconstruction, had the Federal Government interfered 
so unreservedly with state affiiirs. Federal troops had installed 
Kellogg, and kept him in office. Federal Marshals and troops 
were raiding North Louisiana and making wholesale arrests; 
and Federal officials, clerks in the post-office and custom 
house, were conducting the registration, and holding the elec- 
tion. 

These wrongs, and the use of the United States troops, did 
not, however, benefit the Kellogg government in the least. 



426 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

On the contrary, they aroused the people, and in the election 
in Novxnuber, 187(i, the Democratic state and national ticket 
carried Louisiana by an average majority of 8,000. 

Then, for the third time, the Returning Board came into 
play, and the old method was resorted to of throwing out 
enough polls and parishes to make the state and Legislature 
Republican. It so happened, however, that the National 
election depended on the vote of Louisiana, and the proceed- 
ings of the Returning Board of 1876 were therefore watched 
by the whole country, and its history made known. All the 
facts came out, and the people of the United States then 
learned how Louisiana elections had been mannged in the 
past. They learned that the election machinery had been 
placed in the hands of low and mercenary adventurers ; that 
the supervisors of election contracted in advance with the 
candidates, as to how the votes should be cast ; they learned 
how the returns were '* doctored,'^ and how forged returns 
and affidavits were secured whenever this Avas necessary. It 
was shown that George L. Smith, candidate for Congress in 
the Fourth District, was given blank appointments to all 
the election offices in the District, and that the returns of 
DeSota parish were sent privately to him, and examined and 
doctored before being turned over to the Returning Board ; 
and that the returns of Bossier, Webster and other parishes 
were similarly opened and doctored — a fact that was devel- 
oped by a misdate. Ballot-box stuffing, falsification of 
returns, forgery and other crimes, were clearly shown upon the 
investigation; but this matters little. The Democrats had 
carried the state by 8,000 majority, but wdien the Returning 
Board got through with its supervisory work, it had manu- 
factured a Republican majority of 9,000, and created a 
Republican Legislature. 

The rival state governments — one headed by Nicholls, 
elected by the popular vote, and tlie other by Packard, for- 
merly United States Marshal — both organized in January, 
1877, but the jurisdiction of the Packard government was 
restricted to the State House. From January to March — 
for three months — Louisiana remained in this condition, with 
two Governors, two Legislatures and two Supreme Courts. 



RECONSTKUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 497 

A conflict was prevented only by the presence in force of 
United States troops, stationed in the immediate vicinity of 
the State House. During all this period, the Packard govern- 
ment was in a state ot siege. Over a thousand negro ad- 
herents of the Packard government lived and ate and slept in 
the state capitol. The building became extremely iilthv and 
dangerous to the public health, and finally small- pox broke 
out among the crowded inmates. But the leaders held on, 
clinging to the hope that the Federal government would 
again interfere, and, as in the case ot* Kellogg, induct 
Packard into office. 

After a strained condition which existed for months, and 
might at any time have precipitated a general riot and 
even civil war, the president decided to abandon the policy 
of military interference, and withdraw the troops. 

The weakness of the Packard regime then became patent. 
The State Government fell to pieces, the moment the Federal 
troops were withdrawn. Packard, who claimed to be Gov- 
ernor, left Louisiana never to return; and most of the 
political gypsies, who, in the sorrowful decade just past, had 
led the Republican party in its career of spoliation, riot 
and lawlessness, were scattered far and wide, each resuming 
his habit to " swing his pot and ])itch his tent wherever 
he saw a prospect of [public] plunder." On the departure of 
the United States troops, the Eepublican party of Louisi- 
ana was no more. 

The Vampire Warmothism 

had reduced the assessment or wealth of New Orleans from 
$146,718,790 at Warmoth's advent, to $88,613,930 at Kel- 
logg's exit, a net decline of $58,104,860 in eight years ; 
while real estate in the country parishes, had shrunk in value 
from $99,266,839.85 to $47,141,696, or about one-half. 
During this period, the Republican leaders had squandered 
nearly one hundred and fifty millions, giving the state little 
or nothing to show therefor. The state debt was increased 
more than $40,000,000, and that of the city about $ll\0U0,- 
000. Forty per cent, of the former had been repudiated, 



428 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 

aud, in the redemption of it with new bonds, many millions 
had disappeared and been lost to the state. The increase of 
taxation had been manifold — in many parts eight-fold — 
reaching 5, 6, 7 and even 8 per cent, in some places. City 
property depreciated 40, and country 50 per cent. Such is 
the Republican financial record. 

Of course, a standing army — infantry, cavalry and artillery 
— all at the expense of the victims — was required to defend 
such despotism, the cost being about a million a year. A 
navy was needed, too, and the " Ozark '^ bore the broad pen- 
nant, with one other state vessel for the squadron. The 
viceroy could have, on call, United States troo})s and United 
States Deputy Marshals. Federal soldiers were used at the 
elections, and for making arrests; and a Federal fleet, at 
times, with spring cables, and guns loaded with death and 
devastation, menaced New Orleans. In the vice-regal reign, 
nearly 2000 Federal arrests — mostly of the better classes — • 
were made ; but after some imprisonment or restraint, were 
released as soon as tried. Yet all this failed to keep order; 
and the state Government twice went to pieces before a popu- 
lar demonstration. 

AVarmothism seemed to begin and gradually grow to fat- 
ness with wrong-doing ; and (possibly designing it), by es- 
tablishing lotteries and public gambling in 18G8, it drew 
from all abroad the dregs of population, and thereby fur- 
nished itself with an ample su})ply of trained rascals for 
tools. 

For a year, gambling in New Orleans was public, like any 
other business, and open to minors, women, or any others. 
Gamblers and their congeners flocked in from everywhere, 
and the city became like a wild frontier town. Despite War- 
mothism, however, the moral force of society brought it to 
an end, except the Louisiana Lottery, which, then chartered 
for twenty-five years, now exhibits to all the land one of the 
moral beauties of that regime. At all events misgovernment, 
lawlessness, robbery, peculation, bribery and corruption then 
began to flourish as never before ; and Warmoth seemed 
rather proud of his ^' bad eminence.^' With flagitious can- 
dor he bore such testimony as this: *^In the Legislature" 



KECONSTKUCTION IN LOUISIANA. 429 

of 1870 (which he had elected), he said there was "hut one 
honest man.'' " Corruption is the fashion/' he remarked to 
a delegation that waited on him; ''I do not pretend to be 
honest, but only as honest as anybody in politics." 

An adventurer, without a dollar, he was said to be worth 
a quarter of a million within a year of his election ; and 
though his salary was $8000 a year, he was, at retiring, re- 
puted to have one of the largest fortunes in Louisiana. His 
successor, Kellogg, Avent and did likewise, retiring, it was 
said, with half a million ! 

The example of " making haste to be rich " was not fol- 
lowed by their Democratic successors. Kicholls, twice Gov- 
ernor, became steadily poorer while in service. Wiltz, who 
died in the office, was so poor that his friends had to make a 
subscription for his widow and children; while Governor S. 
D. McEnery, after serving seven years, left the gubernatorial 
chair with greatly diminished means. 

The writer begs leave to say, in conclusion, that this sketch 
of robbery and infamy is based mainly on Republican data, 
as has been indicated ; on the statutes and committee reports 
of the Legislature ; on auditors' official documents ; on the 
facts found and stated by Congressional Republican Commit- 
tees, who were sent to see and report on the workings of 
reconstruction ; on the speeches of leading Republican states- 
men, and on the facts given by leading Republican papers. 

The writer begs leave to say further, that he belongs to no 
party, but feels that he has a right to plead for his common- 
wealth, as one of the integers of our political system, and vin- 
dicate her rights and immunities, just as he would (regardless 
of sentiment) tSose of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Penn- 
sylvania, or Delaw^are ; 'for his hope and prayer is that they 
and all their sisters, old and young, will be, down to the last 
syllable of recorded time, among "the several states which 
may he included tvithin this union'' — to use the words of the 
compact (Article I.) describing the "essential component parts 
of the Union," as Hamilton declared the states to be. 

B. J. Sage. 




CHAPTER XV. 

SUNRISE. 

PROSPERITY FOI,I.OWS THE RESTORATION OF GOOD GOVERNMENT. 

THE days during whicli the reconstruction governments 
ruled in the several Southern states were the darkest 
that ever shrouded any portion of our country. 

The slaughter and the sacrifices during our great civil war 
were terrible indeed, but those dark days were lighted by 
the shining valor of the patriot soldier ; the storm clouds 
were gilded with glory. 

But there was, in the scenes faintly pictured in the prece- 
ding portion of this book, nothing but wretchedness and 
humiliation, and shame, and crime begetting crime. There 
was no single redeeming feature, exce])t the heroic determina- 
tion of the better classes in the several states to restore good 
government. Their constancy as we have seen was at last, 
in each case, rewarded. 

Tiie results are best shown by figures which we take by 
permission from the Manufacturers^ Record, of Baltimore, 
Md., of December 21, 1889. In a special number of this 
able paper, the editor has compiled many tables of figures, 
showing in great detail that the South is now growing more 
rapidly than the remainder of the country in the production 
of pig iron, the manufacture of cotton goods, the building of 
railroads, the building of industrial towns and cities, the 
mining of coal, the manufacture of lumber, the raising of 
grain, the establishment of National Banks, and the accumu- 
lation of money. The Record is not a political paper. The 
figures were gathered and compiled for business men. The 
article is headed 

430 



SUNRISE. 431 

THE SOUTH'S REDEMPTION. 

FROM POVERTY TO PROSPERITY. 

In 1860 the Richest Part of the Country — In 1870 the 

Poorest — In 1880 Signs of Improvement — In 

1889 Regainhig the Position of 1860. 

Its purpose is to show the comparative progress made 
North and South during the last decade; and no period could 
be selected that would more fitly represent the contra^^t be- 
tween the South under present auspices and when under re- 
construction influences. When 1880 began prosperity was 
commencing. The night had passed away and the morning 
of a brighter day was upon us. The Southern States were 
fast recovering from the immediate blighting effects of mis- 
government. 

The first table presented is of assessed values : 

The assessed value of property in the South, as already stated, was 
12,100,000,000 less in 1870 than in 1860, while in tlie rest of the country 
there was an increase of over §4,000.000,000 during that decade. Not until 
about 1876 were there any decided indications of a change for the better 
in the vSouth. By 1879-80 an improvement was seen, and it is since that 
time that the most marked progress has been made. That this progress 
has been phenomenal, and especially when the poverty of this section at 
that time is taken into account, the statistics given in this issue of tlie 
Manufacturers' Record wall certainly make plain. A comparison of the 
assessed value of property, by States, in 1880 and 1889, gives the fol- 
lowing : 

1880. 1889. Increase. 

Maryland $459,187,408 $477,398,380 $18,210,972 

Virginia 303,997,613 *344,169,473 40,171,860 

North Carolina 169,916,907 217,000,000 47,083,093 

South Carolina 129,551 624 145,280,343 15,728,343 

Georgia 251,424,651 380,289,314 128,864,663 

Florida 31,157,846 93,800,000 62,642.154 

Alabama 139,077,328 242,197,531 103,120.203 

Mississippi 115,130,651 157,830,431 42,699,780 

Louisiana 177,096,459 226,392,288 49,295,S27 

Texas 311,470,736 710,000,000 398.529,264 

Arkansas 91,191,653 166,000,000 74,808,347 

Tennessee 211,768,438 325,118,636 113..350.198 

West Virginia . ...... 146,991,740 183,013,737 36,021.997 

Kentucky 375,473,041 551,676,267 176,203,226 

Total $2,913,436,095 $4,220,166,400 $1,306,729,927 



432 



WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 



The Census report of 1879-80 estimated tliat tlie assessed value of pro- 
perty in the South was only 41 per cent, of the true value. On this basis 
the true vahie of property"^ in the South in 1880 was $7,105 917,300, and 
the value at present $10,293,088,700— a gain of over $3,000,000,000. 

The editor then gives statistics showing progress in each of 
the States in everything going to make up the following 
table ; but space will only be taken here to give the sum- 
mary, as follows : 

1889. 
1880. (Partly Estimated.) 

Assessed value of property $2,913,430,095 $4,220,106,400 

Kailroad mileage 19,431 40,250 

Cost of railroads 079,000,000 1,500 000,000 

Yield of cotton, bales 5,755,359 7,250,000 

Yield of grain, bushels 431,074,030 675,000,000 

Number of farm animals 28,754,243 45,592,536 

Value of livestock 391,412,254 569,161,550 

Value of C///V/ agricultural products . . 571,098,454 850,000,000 

Coal mined, tons 6,049,471 22,000,000 

Pig iron produced, tons 397,301 1,600,000 

Number of cotton mills 161 355 

" spindles 667,854 2,035,268 

" looms _ 14,323 45,000 

" cotton-seed oil mills .... 40 213 

Capital invested in cotton-seed oil mill^ . 3,504,000 20,000,000 

Number of National Banks 220 472 

Capital of National Banks 45,597,730 76,454,510 

The figures, however, as to banking, deposits, profits, &c., 
are so important that they must be given in full. These con- 
stitute the most infallible test of the condition of the country. 
Following is the statement by geographical division : 

NORTH, 1879. 

NO. OF gTATE CAPITAL SURPITJS VNDIVIDED LOANS AND INDIVIDUAL 

B.iNKS. ■ STOCK. ' * PROFITS. DISCOUNTS. DEPOSITS. 

69 Maine $10,435,000 $ 2,430,771 $ 1,243,310 8 14,914,532 S 8,194,218 

47 New Hampshire . 5,830,000 1,080,072 503,800 7,138,376 3,943,933 

47 Vermont .... 8,301,000 1,94'>,151 557,821 10,080,253 5,037,891 

*188 Maspachusetts . . 45,105,000 12.613,406 3,223,254 73,313,493 39,314,00!) 

54 Boston 50,50!t,f)00 10,016,144 2,247,975 113,170,321 70,727,680 

CI Hhode Island . . 20,(09,800 3,603, '■52 1,087,086 26,1.31,711 8,908,878 

84 Connecticut . . . 25.404,020 6,008,169 1,460,611 39,852,9.'^1 21,146,046 

*242 New York State , 32 897,160 7,704,249 4,477,685 67,210,314 59,.339,863 

47 New York City . 50,65(',ono 18 185,383 10,390,427 238,495,325 212,044,721 

7 Albany, N. Y. . . 1,800,000 1,4' 0.000 192,785 7,388,023 6.110,018 

06 New Jersey . . . 12,995,350 3,703,071 1,389,983 20,490,480 24,524,830 

*180 Pennsylvania . . 28,945,^^40 7,074,001 2.547,4' 9 47,729,528 45,928,(i77 

32 Philadelphia . . 17,358,000 7,654,090 1,825,876 54,418,619 57,918,373 

22 Pittsburg .... 9,850,000 3,071,462 618,856 19,665,846 15,714.975 

14 Delaware .... 1,763,985 475,794 138,078 3,317,887 3,056,545 

1166 $321,905,255 ?88,182,821 f 31,91 1,066 £749,329,642 5611,910,657 

* Exclusive of r'.seivc cities. 



SUNRISE. 



433 



SOUTH, 1879. 



^°- °*" STATE 

BANKS. ^^^^^• 

*20 Maryland . 
15 Baltimore . 
*1 Dist. of Columbia 

5 Ma-hiiigton . 
17 Virginia . . . 
17 West Virginia . 
15 North Carolina 

12 South Carolina 

13 Georgia . . 
2 Florida . . 
9 Alabama . 

. . Mississippi 
. . Louisiana . 

7 New Orleans 
13 Texas . . 

2 Arkansas . 
*41 Kenturky . 

8 Louisville 
23 Tennessee . , 

220 



CAPITAL 

STOCK. 

i 2,331,700 
10,89u,.-i30 

2o2,(X)0 
1,125,000 
2,866,100 
1,761,000 
2,501,000 
2,449,900 
2,221,000 

100,000 
1,518,000 



2,875,000 
1,300,000 
205,000 
7,201,0 
2,995,300 
3,005,500 



SURPLUS. 

8 690,815 

2,4-'9,744 

57,(i'X) 

272,500 

8^2,890 

435,882 

319,697 

368,359 

431,803 

2,000 

221,365 



570,009 
278,548 
40,000 
1,142,803 
36!l,064 
555,939 



UNDIVinF.D 
PKOFITS. 

8 216,629 

fc87,l('7 

35, 265 

81,999 

319,072 

109,873 

214,147 

307,057 

179,564 

3,855 

143,570 



320,310 
105,(^38 
10,247 
347,714 
238,257 
206, 9o7 



LOANS AKD 

DISCOUNTS. 

9 .3,891 ,651 

23,8lL','.tS5 

24_',J47 

l,4'.)3,7ii6 

7,446,748 

2,945,985 

4,187,3.54 

4,114,719 

3,69-.:,:i06 

l2.s,556 

2,236,010 



7,107,351 
2,043,9,s4 
247,877 
9,4(«»,340 
.5,)'87,105 
6,341, 1(>5 



INPIVinCAL 
PU0KIT8. 

$ 3,997,916 
17,433,^^6 

577,871 
l,57tl,72;t 
(■','.9 ,447 
2,< 4^1,126 
2,H83,365 
2,5Sf>,l76 
2,012,457 

157,JIJ 
1,3 1^,88 'J 



6,013,172 
2,1 'N 1,993 
265,:'.K2 
6,112,913 
2,397,'; 16 
6,58.5, 6.'.,5 



$45,597,730 88,990,309 ?3,727,21l 



io, 280,309 864,730,819 



WEST, 1879. 



*158 Ohio . . . 


6 


Cincinnati 


6 


Cleveland 


92 


Indiana . . 


*127 Illinois . . 


9 


Chicago . . 


*75 


Michigan . 


4 


Detroit . . 


*32 


Wisconsin . 


3 


Milwaukee 


75 


Iowa . . . 


3t 


IMinnesota 


*10 


31issouri . 


5 


St. Louis . 


12 


Kansas , . 


10 


Nebraska . 



660 



76 
51 
49 

*2nl 
55 
60 
84 

*265 

45 

6 

88 

*255 
"41 
24 
18 

1321 



Maine . . . . 
New Hampshire 
Vermont . . 
Massachusetts 
Boston . . . 
Rhode Island 
Connecticut 
New York . 
New York City 
Albany . . . 
New Jersey . 
Pennsylvania 
Philacie'phia 
Pittsburg . . 
Delaware . . 



f 18,761, 900 

4,100,000 

3,700,000 

13,202,500 

10,714,600 

4,250,000 

7,235,000 

2,100,000 

2,400,000 

650,0''0 

5,867,000 

5,150,000 

1,400,000 

2,«5O,00O 

875,000 

850,000 



$3,711,760 

695,000 

760,000 

3,976,906 

3,463,483 

2,360,000 

1,876,122 

715,000 

687,872 

2^0,000 

1,419,101 

937,003 

321,204 

758.037 

193,0.50 

229,700 



$1,602,886 
666,099 
284,586 
l,216,:-i76 
1,054,599 
819,628 
904,209 
454,021 
369,190 
137,755 
633,493 
452,233 
231,462 
256,676 
100,763 
164,478 



$34,274,345 

12,532,^)29 

7,595,258 

23,193,224 

22,471,899 

23,190,590 

14,091, 5h7 

6,846,403 

0,0( -4,498 

2,90.5,709 

11,373,096 

12,201,167 

2,311,75.5 

8, ,527, 61 1 

1,794,360 

3,193,1,58 



f29,817,294 

1<',0()4,733 

6,'.i.5l,l;i5 

19,871,023 

2.5,857,i»4X 

2:^,534,594 

12,0,39,290 

6,•J6,5,8.^^ 

6,.542,023 

3,216,893 

Il,6u7,6l9 

8,918,149 

3, 127 68-2 

5, 20.3, .591 

2,.'>47,782 

3,723,501 



$83,906,0c0 t22,324,238 {9,348,454 $191,506,069 $179,278,252 



NORTH, 1889. 



$10,660,000 

6,317,800 

7,466,000 

45.049,430 

51,800,000 

20,284,1 50 

24, o-.^, 370 

34,329,060 

48,85' ',000 

1,550,000 

13,524,640 

34,162,580 

23,408,1100 

lo,43",0O0 

2,133,9S5 



$ 2,658,509 

1,.M5,P.32 

1,691,177 

14,. 571,. 525 

1.3,744,970 

4,408,363 

6,867,079 

11,056,818 

33,052,906 

l,278,.50O 

5,61.5,351 

13,:^.21,1I3 

11,724,303 

6,162 909 

883,4.50 



$ 1,312,515 

606,318 

664,600 

5,537,831 

5, .^45, 267 

1,946,724 

1,76 ,605 

6,.557,680 

11,967,798 

230,569 

2,285.792 

3,370,738 

2,205,712 

931,298 

226,428 



$ 20,442,270 

1< 1, 106, 8' 3 

12,744,250 

100,988,!i77 

147,6.59,370 

36,272,H69 

46,291,130 

101,788,'.».39 

309,442,460 

,^,813,f,16 

43,!t:i4,984 

8C,,451,156 

96,453,861 

35,029.127 

5.:^92,5(;o 



$11,.5".3,148 

7,ol5,t;22 

6,84 ',125 

62,792, Mil 

102.9:j;{ 9."'5 

15,S67,3I2 

.^i;,. r>4i,.52l 

92,.',99,443 

2«1,46 ',362 

7,647.4' 9 

42,04.3,4.'.9 

8f,- 66,tl54 

90,Hf'7,W>8 

30,734.775 

4,531,s2'i 



{333,989,915 $127,582,805 $45,.549,875 $1,061,812,372 $8,52,424,774 
* Exclusive of reserve cities. 



28 



434 



WHY THE SOLID SOUTH ? 



SOUTH, 1889. 



^•'- "^ STATE. 






CAPITAL 


SURPLUS. 


UNDIVinED 


LOAN.S AND 


INDIVIDUAL 


BANKS STOCK. 




PUdFITS. 


Dl.sfOUNTS. 


DKPOSITS. 


*34 I^Iaryland .... $ 2,082,000 


$ 1,073,789 


$ 2^9,849 


$ 8,010,683 


$ 7,348,151 


17 Baltimure . . . 


11,713.260 


3,923,600 


864,-72 


28,^>29,»95 


21,41 s393 


*l Dist. ot Columbia 


2:)2,ouO 


6o,000 


59,819 


321,414 


864,065 


7 Washington . . 


1,575,000 


073,000 


159,231 


5,401,856 


8,039,39.{ 


30 Vir«iniii . . 


4,076,5(.0 


1,659,919 


372,293 


12,156,945 


10,6'; 5,152 


]9 West Virginia . 


. 1,856,000 


477,096 


90,534 


4,311,458 


3,470,3,>s7 


18 North Carolina 


. 2,27H,0OJ 


5h6,l54 


284,414 


5,331,796 


3,955,276 


16 South Carolina 


. 1,798,000 


842,500 


811,732 


5, 91 '1,898 


3,171,3-2 


li7 Georj^ia .... 


3,661,560 


1,127,914 


539,980 


8.037,631 


5,392,124 


13 Florida . . . 




950,000 


130,650 


72,077 


2,220,063 


2,59';,5iG 


25 Alabama . . 




. 3,891,100 


9.i7,888 


442,486 


7,691.009 


6,008,817 


12 Mississippi . 




1,130,000 


311,300 


72,258 


2,5:;9,137 


1,849,071 


*5 Louisiana . . 




5(I(1,0(M) 


108,000 


.32,271 


986,886 


937,7*0 


9 New Orleans 




3,125,000 


1,550,125 


334,198 


11,315,4»7 


12,544,317 


115 Texas .... 




13,-1 OH, 690 


3,156,701 


90(J,447 


25,319,(,42 


18,00 •■,037 


8 Arkansas . . 




. l,2lK»,0(tO 


. 237,000 


43,071 


2,787,685 


2,273,113 


45 Tennessee . . 




7,905,000 


1,742,762 


787,529 


19,214,970 


14,400,829 


*(i2 Kentucky . . 




10,0u2,9()0 


2,3.54, 7(;5 


632,465 


18,3S'I,361 
11,011,161 


11,28:5,524 


9 Louisville . . 




4,151,500 


1,003,928 


341,653 


4,2(58,055 


472 $70,451,510 


$21,937,991 


$7,136,579 


$179,787,377 


$139,093,232 




WEST, 1889. 






*197 Ohio 824,404,000 


$6,095,999 


$1,706,281 


$55,868,869 


$47,431,1.30 


13 ( incinnati 






8,900,000 


2,068,000 


f 75,999 


23,826,745 


18,845,:{<;5 


9 Cleveland . . 






6,7.50,000 


1,064,000 


523,881 


17.844,736 


13,488,317 


07 Indiana . . 






l2,2.S4,.0OO 


3,811,589 


l,2f-4,735 


28,683,(;59 


28,581,945 


*1()8 Illinois . . 






15,204,000 


4,997,209 


1,970,331 


4o,92S,8.53 


30,311,620 


19 Chicago . . 






]5,5.'iO,ooO 


5,755,000 


1,901,451 


70,104,937 


54,014,859 


*104 Micliigan . 






11,244,600 


2,591,032 


1,212,786 


29,9.'.3,< 92 


24,186,299 


8 Detroit . . 






4,400,000 


552,000 


413,599 


13,892,833 


9,829,096 


*58 Wisconsin . 






4,925,000 


1,464,834 


502,935 


15,946,304 


15,14:^,163 


3 Milwaukee 






850,000 


390,' 00 


221,842 


4,40H,915 


5,185,933 


132 Iowa . . . 






10,.-.40,0'.)0 


2,^83,803 


985,612 


2.-), 809, 477 


20,(563,814 


57 IMinnesota 






14,145,'O0 


2,641,922 


1,431,927 


37,273,270 


26,k:]7,605 


*39 ]yiis8ouri . 






2,882,190 


625,147 


145,722 


5,644,919 


5,.'S85,445 


5 St. liouis . 






4,400,(JOO 


84o,(M)0 


283.. 548 


10,410,579 


8,493,082 


10 Kansas City 






1,800,000 


846,500 


223,286 


18,030,415 


11,932,978 


3 St. Joseph 






1,000,000 


81,500 


l'3,035 


2,972,373 


2,599,573 


162 Kansas . . 






13,010,100 


1,911,4.53 


70 ,983 


22,4.54,043 


1K,0I2,<59^ 


*107 Nebraska . 






. 7,285,000 


1,261,109 


442,i;80 


If,. 11 1,975 


11,344,093 


7 Omaha . . 






3,300,000 


457,r.00 


143,065 


10,143,532 


8,493,880 


1198 


|162,b74,390 


$40,338,597 


$14,765,089 


$4 0,318,506 


$3;0,910,925 



In order to make still clearer the relative progress of tJie 
States treated of in this book and the other States comprised 
in the above tables the former and the latter are gronped 
below. The figures are so remarkable that attention is here 
called to the fact that the editor has taken them from the 
official reports. 

The term Northern and Western applies to the following 
States: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, 



* Exclusive of reserve cities. 



SUNRISE. 435 

Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mich- 
igan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, and 
District of Columbia ; and the term Southern applies to the 
following States: Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, A\'est Vir- 
ginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Missouri. 

Northern and Western Stales, 1879. 

NO. OF CAPITAL ciinpTTTfl tlNDIVIHED LOANS AND 

BANKS. STOCK. SURPLUS. pKoFlTS. DISCOUNTS. BErOStTfl. 

1895 $436,556,785 $114,390,644 $42,578,353 8974,7b5,259 $8M,Mj4,r.21 

Northern and Western States, 1889. 

2592 ^^17,468,775 $174,797,337 $61,886,252 $1,546,027,962 $1,249,4.39,202 

Percentage of Increase. 

37 19 53 45 68 53 

Southern States, 1879. 

151 $24,852,200 $5,115,724 $2,408,378 $51,331,361 $41,025,137 

Southern States, 1889. 

399 $55,850,040 $15,062,056 {5,564,881 $144,890,293 $113,889,729 

Perce)itage of lucrea e. 

104 125 194 131 182 177 

This comparison shows that while the percentage of in- 
crease of banks was, in the North and West, 37 per cent., it 
was, in the South, 164 ; that in the former the increased per- 
centage of capital stock was 19 against 125 in the latter; of 
surplus 53 against 194; undivided profits, 45 against 131; 
loans and discounts 68 against 182, and deposits 53 against 
177 ; the average percentage of increase in all these items 
being about threefold greater in the South than in the remain- 
der of the States presented. 

The facts stated in the preceding portions of this book and 
those shown by these figures present, it is believed, the most 
startling contrast between the results of good government and 
bad that can be found in the history of mankind. Statistics, 
however, do not always impress tlie mind as vividly as the 
personal evidence of an intelligent witness. There is no more 
competent observer than Vice-President IMorton. On his 
return from a recent trip to the South, he talked to a reporter 
of the Washington Post. The whole interview may be in- 
teresting to one who wishes to understand the present condi- 
tion. 



436 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

" It was my first trip along the South Atlantic coast," he 
said, '^although many years ago I visited New Orleans, and 
to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the trip would be to very 
mildly characterize the pleasure I experienced. Although I 
went among the people who were perfect strangers to me, aud 
with whose interests I had not beeu closely identified, I met 
jwith a most cordial greeting everywhere, and, indeed, could 
not begin to accept all the invitations which were showered 
upon me. If I had had the time I would hav^e gone to 
Mobile, Ala., Thomasville, Ga., and other places from which 
invitations came, but there had to be a limit to travel." 

'' What feature of this trip most impressed you?" 

^' I tliink that the wonderful aud rapid recovery of the 
South from the devastation of the war is most amazing and 
must strongly imj)ress every one who knows what the South 
experienced and realizes what it is to-day. I am frank to 
say that I do not believe a traveler going through the South, 
if unaware of the struggle of twenty-five years ago, would 
notice any signs resulting from that struggle. Of course this 
recovery is not equal at all points. Some cities are more back- 
ward than others, and yet I believe that all cities are feeling 
the general j)rospcrity which is now the happy condition of 
the South. Atlanta, Savannah, Birmingham, aud Jackson- 
ville are particularly flourishing. Jacksonville has in four 
years increased its poi)ulation from 35,000 to 60/JOO. This 
is marvellous growth." 

^^ Do the Southern people still talk of the war?" 

" I think not, except to refer to it as a basis of comparison 
by which they emphasize the changes wlii(;h ha.ve been made 
since it closed, and this comparison is with them a natural 
matter of pride. Of course, I s])eak only for the cities. I 
did not go into the country. In the cities, however, the 
Southern man has his mind on the future rather than on the 
past." 

" There is considerable Northern capital invested in the 
development of the South ? " 

^' Beyond a doubt." 

" And do the Northerners and the Southerners work to- 
gether without friction ? " 



SUNRISE. 437 

'^ I think they do. Certainly anion«r the business men, so 
far as I could see, Democrats and Republicans were on ex- 
cellent terms. There is a common bond," continued Mr. 
Morton, with a smile, " in making money, and tliat is what 
the South is now successfully endeavoring to do. Northern 
people are welcomed in the South, especially if they are dis- 
posed to place their shoulders to the wheel in helping to 
develop the material industries of that section. Tiie South- 
erner may not agree with his Northern visitor politically, and 
he may have diiferent views on other questions, but he is 
heart and soul with him on the all-absorbing question of 
development. Yes, there can be no question but that the 
Northern man is sure of a cordial welcome to the South." 

'' Then the Southerners are not letting Northern men do 
all the work ? " 

" Not by any manner of means. They are also up and 
alive and doing." 

'^ Mr. Morton said that the Florida hotels were now fidl of 
tourists from the North. Jacksonville is crowded, and all 
the St. Augustine hotels are full. A new hotel, to accommo 
date 500 or 600 guests, is now being erected in Tampa, and 
will be readv next season. In conclusion Mr. Morton a;j:ain 
referred with the heartiest appreciation to the marked cordi- 
ality which had been shown him, and expressed the firm 
belief that the present era of prosperity in the South was not 
based on a fictitious foundation, but was the result of natural 
and lasting causes." 

All these facts cannot be answered by citing and collating 
isolated cases of wrong. 

The political earthquake that convulsed the Southern 
States for years, some of them from 1865 to 1876, of course 
lefl great fissures, some of which are not yet closed ; but the 
kindly processes of nature are carrying on the work of resto- 
ration. 

It was and is the misfortune of the Southern people to 
have to deal with the problems arising out of race })rcjudices. 

The negro had neitlier the will nor the power to resist the 
forces which arrayed him against his late master, and the 
solidification of his vote, by those who were to profit by it, 



438 



WHY THE SOLID SOUPH? 



meant of course, a black man's party; for its niaioritv senti- 
ent ,ieter,n,„es tlje con.plexion of every political partv 

meant inn. lo avert rum white men united: and then 
came a strugg e, the issue of which was in all the States he 
same It could not anywhere he doubtful. The race a 'ai t 
M he negro had allowed himself to be arra^dTas ne ve 
yet met its master. It could not go down before the A Wean 
No true fnend of tl-.e colored man wouki, except in i^m- 
rance, precipitate such a conflict ' ° 

But victor though the white man was, no one could rec^ret 

the en orced conflict more than di.l the peo,>le of the Somlf 

And they set to work at once to make i k ndiy use of t ei^ 

V ctories. Under the laws passed by Southern whrte men 

e negroes in every Southern State are far more prosi'erous 

ft.etL;:- .Tendf '■ '"^ ^'^ "^^ '"^ ^^''^ ''""-"- 

o? thi'sulr"/" '" '%'/" ■"»"'?^^'" "- So^theniSs 
ot thi. Union. In everything going to make up a pro<.ner- 

ous and happy career their conditioif is infinitely betfeiXn 
that of their brethren in such countries as Ha^, where " 

se nfotlliid- ?/"'" "'■'•'^rt ^-"^ y^' there ire' those wo 
seem to think it an especial duty to foment amono- these col- 
ored peo,,le a spirit of strife and discontent. Th're is none 

in the sZWrrr "'' TT f "',?• "'''"^ f'^llow-citizeiis 
in tlie South. They understand well enough that the one 
condition upon which prosperity can be hoj^ed for is p^^ 
and not strite between the races. They know full we/to^ 
that the laborer wull not be valuable eid.er as a citilei or a 
vorker unless he is contented, and that he will no be con- 
SonH,"t'h %r''! •'/""■'^ "''''''^- So in every State in the 
th oidi'ti^^of H ^""^ "''^'=' ""'' successfully: too, to better 
zensliip ihese States are expending many millions per 
annum for educational purposes. Following i a table taken 
from the Report of the U. S. Commissioner'of Edti^Tation fo 
1889. It comprises all of the States of the Union which 
have made separate reports for white and colored sehooir. 



SUNRISE. 



439 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR THE COLORED RACE. 
Table 91.-Colored School Population, Enrollment and Avcraje, Attendance 

for 1S87-88. 




Alabama 

Arkaasas 

Delaware* .... 
District of Columbia 

Florida 

Georgia 

Indiana 

Kentucky* . . . . 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

ISIississippi* . • • • 

Missouri* 

North Carolina . . . 
South Carolina . . . 
Tennessee* . . . • 

Texas 

Virginia 

West Virginia . . . 



1887 


7-21 


1888 


G-21 


1S86 


6-21 


1883 


6-17 


1888 


6-21 


1888 


6-18 


1888 


6-21 


1886 


6-20 


1887 


6-18 


1880 


5-20 


18-^5 


5-21 


1887 


6-20 


1888 


6-21 


1880 


6-18 


18S7 


6-21 


1888 


8-16 


1885 


5-21 


1888 


6-21 



212,821 
99,784 
b5,750 
18,20fi 
33,596 

267,657 
17,750 

102,617 
dl51,?.84 

, 6^',409 
269,009 
47,603 
216,837 
180,4;i5 
161 ,393 
135.184 
265,249 
10,420 



485,551 
388,165 
642,218 
51,501) 
63,848 
560,281 
756,989 
641,638 
335,603 
295,215 
471, :W2 
838,812 
580, H19 
281,684 
640,014 
525,110 
610,271 
256,:}50 



098,306 

50,57*) 

b3,5<Hl 

12,796 

*3 1,51,6 

120,' 53 

8,408 

41,052 

4i;,9l2 

32,5:5') 

143,8i5 

30,4(9 

125,884 

10::,:'.34 

so, I '27 

84,463 

118,831 

6.i:'i0 



af.3,995 
*9,'538 



c23,105 
34,26-2 
14,221 
85,996 

* 75.230 
74.<t75 
66,3:j2 

" 64,422 
3,557 




* For 18S6-7. , fi„,,res seem to be those of 1886-7. 

I E^el™!::„°/SlLtg°^u, JStfeirirfour ?cl.o„ls for colored cb,.*en. 

c For counties only. 
d For 1885-86. 

When the ne.ro was a ,«!ave thejhite men of the Sov,|h 
made it unlawful to teach In m to lead Ih s ^^a. I 

themselves to fit him for freedom ,5^,. 

Let the reader ponder tins fact ^"^^^^^j^^^if.i,,,! States 
self the question whether the Coju..J U,e L.^^ ^^_^^ ^^ _^_ 
can wisely enact any law t at ^^o,.k t . ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ 

flictof races in the South. /' "°' \,t;,,sted in its oorn-ct 
beins worked out by the people T'V "•' the only pos.il.le 
solution? Are they not proceeding in the > 1 



440 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

and ippiied i^ S^i^:::i;z^z;r^,-^ zr 

are necessary to its solution interested, all these 

;"g.i.e4-o'nS„l:f';idVlrs„;u^^^^^^^^ 

won,d tend t'owanir: Slt'.'.^.^^ .^r^Cr"' ^"^ ^' 

ins vote aud somrprl if Ti.^ ^oioiea man 

solid „,asses T dlt pur!! "^^eT '''"' "^ '^,' P""^ "' 

eael. of tl.e foimer slavv states ^ "■'"^'* ''"""''^^ '" 

..anufacturinSesllStuldT^^n^S t'-^'V;' 
program should be carried out as it ;« !'• i v"-'' ,'{ "''' 

with the United States arnTv'to enforce '^twJT''' ""'' 
domination should asain be f.merl T *l a ;,*'"' ""^^o 
princely fortune would van.d, toair ft f'"""' •'"'"^u " 



SUNRISE. 441 



latioii The Southern people themselves look on with the 
profoundest concern. They jnclge the futnre by the past 
They themselves passed through the scenes that are only 
faintly pictured in the preceding pages Ex,>enonce has 
demonstrated to them, what reason itself would teach that 
Federal control over election laws and elecfon metho.ls, ,„- 
terference by the General Government expressly m favor ot 
he blacks and against the whites, would tend to arrav one 
■ace a'ah St the other in bitter hostility that such hostd, tv 
n a contest for supremacy in affairs of governmont would 
engender race conflicts and that race conflicts woul.l furn.sh 
an excuse for military interference. 

It w 11 not answe'r to say that conditions have change . 
There will be Northern adventurers and native whites n 
Seat plenty to lead the negroes. No mass of vc.ters ul, Ic t 
frtmrnm power have ever yet lacked for leaders, and i 
matters not ^hat prejudices the voters have, they will find 
men to v^ldl to hem, and, how great soCN^r tlie.r cupid- 
tv mav be their chosen representatives will answer to the 
rrds'tliat may be made up^ f^ .iSve^^^r s' nTf 

As to whetner y ^^ ^^^^ ^ , 

dominion ot the negro a^ai Ipss.m Would the 

die past may furnish ^''"f "f ';',,' Xitl Carolina, 
army be used more_ freely t >«"/;?! "esnk now be dit' 
Mississippi or Louisiana, and would tlie result, 

ferent? . . „ , ^ ^f o„,. Civil War, 

There was a t'rNl"f\^*^!',,^ook upon the South as a 
.vhen Northern capitalists began ^ jooj; 1«^; governments 
field for investments, bu ''fe' J,^; '^^ ^^;'-^' leir capacity for 
had had opportunity fully « J ^''"f .^f^t" „to that rcgio.i 
evil not a single dollar for wje";^;;^ t,,, overthrow .>r 
for years. Years had elapsed eveu fj^^^_ Southern 
these governments before ec^fiJenee^^ao^^^^^^^^ ^^ 

men they were, who, «ith their own ca^ , ^^_,^,^ ,^^^^ 

the world the resources of the feoutn. 



442 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ceased to doubt either the stability of state governments or 
the vahies of Southern properties ; and now Northern capital 
is flowing southward in a steady stream. It is said that to 
one town in Alabama — now not more than eighteen months 
old — investors have come from thirty-two of the states of the 
Union. The flow has only fairly begun. . If not checked by 
some untoward movement it will steadily increase in volume. 
There is no finer field for investing the surplus capital of the 
North. There is no better customer for the Northern mer- 
chant than the Southerner. There is no more steady demand 
for the products of the Northwest than comes from the Sou.th ; 
and no one can deny that the continued prosperity of that 
section is necessary to the prosperity of the North and West. 

How shall Southern prosperity be continued except, by 
continuing the conditions which brought it about? The 
chiefest of these are honest, economical state governments. 
These secure to labor its reward, and to capital its profit. 

Our ancestors believed that local self-government was the 
greatest of blessings. That was the foundation stone upon 
which was builded all our institutions of government. The 
unwisdom and peril of departing from this theory has never 
had a more convincing illustration than in the reconstruction 
laws of Congress and the results which followed. 

Certainly the masses of the people of the distant North, 
if they had understood the situation at the South as the peo- 
ple there did, and if they could have foreseen the conse- 
quences of the reconstruction laws, would not have sanctioned 
their passage as they did. Intelligent Americans cannot be 
misled as to facts transpiring in their midst. On these their 
judgment is always to be trusted; but there is always danger 
of mistake when voters in any one part of the Union under- 
take to pass upon questions peculiar to a far-distant section 
of the country. Herein lies the distinguishing excellence of 
our complex form of government. Local questions are left 
to be determined by those most interested in correct conclu- 
sions and best acquainted with the facts out of which the 
questions arise. 

It is sincerely to he hoped that the American people may 
not need to take another lesson in the school of Reconstruction. 

Hilary A. Herbert. 



? J> 



APPENDIX A. 



MARCH 2, 18G7. 

Whereas no legal state ^---^ts^-^-^^^P-^^^^ 
or property now exists ^^^ ^^^^ .^^"^if,^^^^^^^^ Alabama, Louisiana, 
Una, Souih Carolina, ^^^JS^; JX'eas it is necessary that peace 
Flo ida, Texas and Arkansas and ^^e;^^^^^^,^ until loyal and re- 
and ^ood order ^^ould be enforced ^^^ ^^^^^^.^^^^.i^ed ; Therefore, 
publican state governments can be le ay j^ .enfatives of the 

^ Be it enacted by the ^'.^f^Zress^^^^^^^^^ 

United States <^'^^^^^^^^,^:^fScts and made subject to the miii- 
shallbe divided into military d^^^^^^^^ prescribed and for 

l^^LTSuU^Carolina^t^^^^ four.h dis- 

Florida the third district ; ^^^^^^^/PP^ district. ^ ^ , ^, 

trict- and Louisiana and Texas tiie nun ^^^ duty of the 

Sec 2. And be it further enacted, Th^^ it sbau district, an 

assigned. 

Sec. 3. And 
officer assigned 

Sopunirh/oroausetooe puLH^^^^^^ ^^,^,1 eiv.l iri- 

^eace a^nd criminals ; /^^nd to this end he m^y^^^^^^ 1 

bunals to take urisdiction f ^"^, ^^^rial of ofTenders, he shall ha e 

power to "'^g'\"''rf g,,ee under color o'/'ff,,?" ' .u":!!!.! vc.i.l. 
Sercire'oftilitrr authority under th. 

"|ec!4. ^«'i*.^^/'"f;Siracfi'aU be tri^d without unnecessary 
tary arrest by virtue of this act sua ^^^ 



444 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 



'e!^n::t/':r:^'i^Z^::^^ -dieted, and no 

affecting the life or UheltyZlTyZr^^^^^^^ 

IS approved by the officer in comm u d V hi^i^! executed until it 
and reguhitions for the govern S of rhL^''^ ^'f'^,^' ^°^ the laws 
by this act, except in so Ikr arthev onn fl . ^.^ '^^^^ "^^ ^^ '-effected 
vidof, Th^t no sentence of death^nK^rl''^'^^'^P'^^'^^^'^^ ^^--• 
shall be carried into effect witho, ill '^ Provisions of this act 

Sec. 5. And be ^ /"Xl^aeW '.lf,fPf'f>^'^^' <>f the President, 
of said rebel states LIlLy:^^!^^^^^^^^^^ of anyone 

in conformity with the Constitutioii ofth? T •. To''^ government 
speeds, framed by a convention of?/!]! . F""^,"^ States in all re- 
zens of said stafeNwe~ by the xnale citi- 

race, color, or preWous conditions wh^i, i"^"'^'*^' ^^ whatever 
siateforoneye^rpreviourto r%voP '^ been resident in said 
as may be disfranchised ibVpurtic Action !^^^ «"^h 

ony at common law, and wherf i^ 1 " /i?., n' 't' ^^" ^^ ^^^ ^■^'- 
the elective franchise shall i^e on nvofln"'" f^'^^^ P^^^'^^e that 
the qualifications he?e l,tedTrp?p> ^'^'^^ P"'^^"^ ^« ^^'-^ve 
such constitution shalTbe ra .tied hv ^ .^ '^^ delegates, and when 
on the question of ra ificat?o who L'^ majority of the persons voting 
gates, and when such cons itb.hdl T/v ' l'^^ '' 't''''' '''' ^'^' 
gress for examination and anm^^^^^^^^^^ to Om- 

provedthe same, and when s sV o K ^'^"-^^ «h^dl have ap- 
elected under said con tftu ion ih-m' ^^ '^^ legislature 

to the Constitution of thfunitecS'lir '-^^opted the amendment 
iiinth Congress, and knovn%s.r<ti;-: P^oposed by the Thirtv- 
shall have becCe a mrt of fhP^ T^-'"' ''^"^ ^^en said article 
said state shall bedech led ent^^tled Jo "''"" ^1 '^^ ^"'^^^' ^^^tes, 
and Senators and RepreLnta" 4^^^^^ ^" Cngress 

tlieir taking the oat^rtSe dbv uf ^e admitted therefrom on 
preceding lections ot't^'rac sha I belnn^'"r "^ thereafter the 
J'rovided, Th^t no person exH.ulprlf \"«P^^''itive in said state: 
office by said proposTamendmontl t^^^ privilege of holding 
States, shall be ei^S 1^^ IprHon ^'^ Constitution of the United 
frame a constiSn flVany of said r.^ ^^ '^' convention to 

person vote for membe^7o7su1h"o^^ shall any such 

rebd stLfsL l%e{;1t^d^^^^^^^^^^ ^^-. P^P^^^ -id 

gress of the United States an v. ivf,"^ *^ representation in the Con- 
therein shall be delmed'; i^rjonaU^^ ^^^ ^-^^«t 
to the paramount authority of the tj^ft J l.f '^?^'^' ^"^J^^t 
abolish, modify, control or sunorJr p f). States at any time to 
to any office undersuchDroviJ^^^^ ^°^ ^° ^^^ elections 
be entitled to vote and ncnLotT^^^^^^ P^^««"« '^'^^^ 
the provisions of thrtiftrsect^onTf .T- "^ ^? ""^l^'^^ to vote, under 
eligible to any office undlrln^ I ' ^'^^•' •'''"^ "^ P^^««» ^hall be 
wouhi be disquLmed f?om hoMinfoffi governments who 
third arHcle o\ said'conSuS ^^^ ^^^^^^^ -^ the 



APPENDIX B. 



MARCH 23, 1867. 



AN ACT STTPPLEMENTAKY TO AN ACT, ENTITLED " AN ACT TO PRO^ IDE 
FOB THE MORE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT OF THE REBEL STATES, 
PASSED MARCH SECOND, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN, 
AND TO FACILITATE RESTORATION. 

Be U enacted hy the Senate and tl^ HonseofRepreMesJthe 
TT uori v//r/^Q nf America in Conaress Assembled, ihal before me nr-t 

months next preceding th,s day,^Dd_iiowjresHle m ^ ^^^^^ ^^^ . ^^^^ 

disfranchised for Participation in a^iyebell.on^c^^^ ^^. 

the United States nor for felony commtt^^^^^^ ^^ ^^ 

state or of the United States; tmt I h.weneveroee^^,^ ^^^,^^ .^^ 

any State Legislature, nor ^^^^^/."/.f;^,^,?;^^^!^^^ against 

any state and afterwards eng^Jged in i.^s rrecu^ ^^^^^^^.^ 

the United States, or given aid or ^^'^^^^^ „\^^ Congress of the 

that I have never taken an «f , f.x^^^^Ses, or as a member 
United States, or as an officer f ^he U^^^^^^^^^^^ or judicial ollker of any 
of any State Legislature, or as an exec itne or )u ^^^^^_ 

statc'to support the Co-titution o h^^ ^ 

wards engaged in insurre.t<.n or rebemo^^^ ^ ^^..,j ^^^,^j^. 



446 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

and will to the best of my ability, encourage others so to do "so heln 
Tegistln; o^ef ^^^^ '' '^'^'^''^'^ ^^^ '^ ad.niniste?:dTytV^ 
Sec. 2. And be if further enacted, That after the completion of the 
registration hereby provided for in any state, at such time and nhces 
therein as the command ng general shall appoint and direcrof vhidi 
at east thirty days public notice shall be given, an election sh a be 
held of delegates to a convention for the purpose of establis fnl « 
constitution and civil government for such statue oval Sihe Unfon 
said convention in each state, except Virginia, to Jonsis? of the same 
number of members as the most numerous branch of he State W- 
islature ot such state in the year eighteen hundred and sixtv to be 
apportioned among the several districts, counties or parishes of such 
state by the commanding general, giving to each representation in 
the ratio of voters registered as afon^said^s nearly a?i' y be The 
convention in Virginia shall consist of the same number of members 
as represented the territory now constituting Virginia in 1 1 e „S 
numerous branch of the Legislature of said stiite in the ZrXhteea 
hundred and sixty, to be apportioned as aforesaid. ^ eigliteea 

bEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That at said election the reo-istered 
voters of each state shall vote for or against a conve tin to%nrm ^ 
constitution therefjr under this act: Those votig'nW o? s"ch 
a convention shall have written or printed on the? ballo^by vh"ch 
they vote for delegate., as aforesaid, the words " For a Conventi n - 
and those voting against such a convention shall have wri t^r 
printed on such ballots the words "Against a Convention "The 
persons appointed to superintend said election, and to mak^ returns 

rltl '7n ^'""r ^'^^•'^=»t, '-^^ J^^'-ei" provided, ;hall count and make 
return of the vo es given for and against a convention • and he com 
mandinggeneral to whom the same shall have ber;e?u ned sSl" 
ascertain and declare the total vote in each state for and "g ins a 
convention. It a majority of the votes given on that question shaH 
be for a conven-ion. then such convention shall be held as herein 
after provided ; but if a majority of said votes shall be aga nst a c n- 
vent ion then no such convention shall be held under this ac • I\o- 
vued, Ihat such convention shall not be held unless a maiorltv of 

strctv^iii^r' ^^"^'-^ ^'^'^ ^^^'^ '-'^' - ^^^ quittonTf-hordi.:^ 

.o^rv\ ^''^J^'^^Miher enacted. That the commanding general of 
each district shal appoint as many Boards of Recnstration S mav be 
necessary consisting of three loyal officers or person, to make ^and 
complete the registration, superintend the elect on, and ma^e return 

^ate^bv a nf 'T; if .f ^"l"" ^"' ^^" '''' ^^^^"^ elected Ldle- 
gates by a plurality of the votes cast at said election : and upon re- 
ceiving said returns, he shall open the same, ascertainte persons 
elected as delegates, according to the returns of the officer who con- 

foHtv or;h/^'f '°^ ^'"^^ "^^^'^ proclamation thereof? andT a ma- 
jority of the votes given on that question shall be for a convention 
the commanding general, within sixty days from the date of election; 



ArPENDlX B. 447 



shall notify the delegates to assemble in convention at a time and 
T)lace to-be mentioned in the notification, and said convention, when 
organized shall proceed to frame a Constitution and civil gnvern- 
S according to the provisions of this act and the act to which it 
sTuppTementary ; and\vhen the same shall have been so Iranicd. 
said Constitution shall be submitted by the convention for r.t, hca- 
Zn to the persons registered under the provisions of this act at an 
e^ecdon to be conducted by the officers or persons appointed or to be 
aDSed by the commanding general, as hereinbefore prov ded 
and to be held after the expiration of thirty days from the date of 

r.n^ tLrPof to be given by said convention ; and the returns 
U? eof strbe made tf the commanding general of the district 

Sec 5 i/if^. it further enacted, That if, according to said returns, 
iheSnstifution .hall be ratified by a majority of the vn es ot the 

session, ^^d if not hi ^^^^;^"; ^^^^^^ to Congress that the election 
bung; andif itshal,moreove^^^ n^^^ ^^ opportunity to 

was one at which all the electors "^ ^J^^j influence of fraud, and 

vote freely and ^-;|^^«^\^J^^^f,r\^X,t ,uch Constitution meets the 
^''^^^.nfTLt^i^Voft tt%tl>fie^ in the state, and 

approval ot a rnajomy oi * •■ ,i , ■ t„ Congress to be in fon- 
if 'the 3akl Constitution ^l^^l' ''^^'^^'l''' 'f^.fjeh this issupplemenUry, 
formity with the proy'^'ons of the act to « mcu i» => complied with, 
and the other provisions of sa d ^f ^^^„7„ "^"b^'c.mgre, , the stule 
T^'tti^^^d enUt:d\f rt-enSi:;!tm/sena^.rs and Repre- 
: , tWef stlTtradmitted tl-refrom^s^l-e,,, p.^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ 

SEC, 6. An.l ''^Jl /"Itfto pm Ulf ^ l^e Zt ethcient .overn- 

mentioned in tlie said *f' *^' ^'^, ,'', „ ,u^ operation of said act, be 

mentofthe rebel ^j*^'''*- "'\* y; ""|^^^^ and 

bv ballot, and all oihcers » '^'^ "^±„'entcr7.?K .»" the discharge of 
conducting said elections shall, before entemg^^l^^ ,^^^ , 

their duties, take and .^«l;'^<="'',f,, 'L°f ',^r,Txu' two, entitled, " An 

proved July .f«°"'^'7f,'f'':S3ce ""-'«', That if any person shall 
act to prescribe an oath ot o"*^^- „/ „^ii,„ ',„ oath in this act pre- 
knowingly and falsely take ^"'^/"^'.'7oin^ hereof dulv convicted, 
scribed, such person so oiT«''d'n.?.J'"d l^^d 7l sabilitie. which by law 
t^'^.^Kr^e^TnlMt "tUe^crinie of willful and corrupt 

^'^7. A.4 U Ufartyr ™-'f That all e>^P-- •---;,!;>•,'!- 
several commanding generals o by virtue m .^ ^^^.^ ,et, shall be 
appointments made by » >«'";""^^, ,7^ 7ot Otherwise appropriate,!. 
^ltn."!l«76':";>'"- -"'Titat the convention for each 



448 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

state shall prescribe the fee?, salaries and compensation to be paid to 
all delegates and other officers and agents herein authorized, or neces- 
sary to carry into effect the purposes of this act not herein otherwise 
provided for, and shall provide for the levy and collection of such 
taxes on the property in such state as may be necessary to pay the 
same. 

Sec. 9. And be U further enacted, That the word " article,'' in the 
sixth section of the act to which this is supplementary, shall be con- 
strued to mean " section." 



APPENDIX C. 



ANNOUNCING THAT THE REBELLION HAS ENDED, 
APRIL 2d, 1866. 

Whereas by proclamations of the fifteenth and nineteenth of April 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, the President of the 
United States, in virtue of the power vested in hira by the Constitu- 
tion and the laws, declared that the laws of the United States were 
opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed in the states of South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and 
Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary 
course of judicial proceeding, or by the powers vested in the marshals 
by law ; 

And whereas by another proclamation made on the sixteenth day 
of August, in the same year, in pursuance of an act of Congress 
approved July thirteenth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, 
the inhabitants of the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, 
North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, 
Mississippi and Florida, (except the inhabitants of that part of the 
state of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany Mountains, and to such 
other parts of that state and the other states before named as might 
maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union and the Constitution, or 
might be from time to time occupied and controlled by forces of the 
United States engaged in the dispersion of insurgents) were declared 
to be in a state of insurrection against the United States ; 

And whereas by another proclamation of the first day of July, one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, issued in pursuance of an act 
of Congress, approved July seventh, in the same year, the insurrection 
was declared to be still existing in the states aforesaid, with the ex- 
ception of certain specified counties in the state of Virginia; 

And whereas by another proclamation made on the second day of 
April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in pursuance of 
the act of Congress of July thirteenth, one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-one, the exceptions named in the proclamation of August 
sixteenth, one thousand eiglit hundred and sixty-one, were revoked, 
and the inhabitants of the states of Georgia, South Carolina, North 
Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missis- 
sippi, Florida and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties of Vir- 
29 449 



450 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

ginia designated as West Virginia, and the ports of New Orleans, 
Key West, Port Eoyal, and Beaufort, in South Carolina) were declar- 
ed to be still in a state of insurrection against the United States. 

And whereas the House of Representatives, on the twenty-second 
day of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, adopted a 
resolution in the words following, namely ; 

^'Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Congress of the 
United States, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced 
upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States, now in 
revolt against the constitutional government, and in arms around the 
Capital ; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feel- 
ings of passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole 
country ; that this war is not waged on our part in any spirit of op- 
pression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose 
of" overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institu- 
tions of those states ; but, to defend and maintain the supremacy of 
the Constitution and to preserve the Union, with all the digrlity, 
equality and rights of the several states unimpaired ; that as soon as 
these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease." 

And whereas the Senate of the United States on the twenty-fifth 
day of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, adopted a 
resolution in the words following, to wit: 

^^ Resolved, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced 
upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern states, now in 
revolt against the constitutional government, and in arms around the 
Capital ; that in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all 
feeling of mere passion or resentment will recollect only its duty to 
the whole country ; that this war is not prosecuted on our part in any 
spirit of oppression nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, 
nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or estab- 
lished institutions of those states, but to defend and maintain the 
supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance there- 
of, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality and rights 
of the several states unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are 
accomplished, the war ought to cease." 

And whereas these resolutions though not joint or concurrent in 
form, are substantially identical, and as such may be regarded as 
having expressed the sense of Congress upon the subject to which 
they relate ; 

And whereas by my proclamation of the thirteenth day of June 
last, the insurrection in the state of Tennessee was declared to have 
been suppressed, the authority of the United States therein to be un- 
disputed and such United States officers as had been duly commis- 
sioned to be in the undisputed exercise of their official functions ; 

And whereas there now exists no organized armed resistance of 
misguided citizens or others to the United States in the states of 
Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ala- 
bama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida, and the laws 
can be sustained and enforced therein by the proper civil authority. 



APPENDIX C. 4,-31 

state or Federal, and the people of the said states are well and loyally 
disposed, and have conformed or will conform in their legislation to 
the condition of affairs growino: out of the amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the United States prohibiting slavery within the limits and 
jurisdiction of the United States ; 

And whereas in view of the before recited premises, it is the mani- 
fest determination of the American people that no state of its own 
will, has the right or the power to go out of, or separate itself from, 
or be separated from the American Union, and that, therefore, each 
state ought to remain and constitute an integral part of the United 
States; 

And whereas the people of the several before mentioned states, have 
in the manner aforesaid, given satisfactory evidence that they acquiesce 
in this sovereign and important resolution of national unity : 

And whereas it is believed to be a fundamental principle of gov- 
ernment that people who have revolted, and who have been overcome 
and subdued, must either be dealt with so as to induce them volun- 
tarily to become friends or else they must be held by the absolute 
military power, or devastated, so as to prevent them from ever again 
doing harm as enemies which last named policy is abhorrent to 
humanity and freedom ; 

And whereas the Constitution of the United States provides for 
constituent committees only as states and not as territories, dependen- 
cies, provinces, or protectorates ; 

And whereas such constituent States must necessarily be and by 
the Constitution and laws of the United States are made equals and 
placed upon a like footing as to political rights, immunities, dignity, 
and power, with the several states with which they are united ; 

And whereas the observance of political equality as a principle of 
right and justice is well calculated to encourage the people of the 
aforesaid states to be and become more and more constant and perse- 
vering in their renewed allegiance ; 

And whereas standing armies, military occupation, martial law, 
military tribunals, and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of 
habeas corpus are, in time of peace, dangerous to public liberty, 
incompatible with the individual rights of the citizen, contrary to 
the genius and spirit of our free institutions, and exhaustive of the 
national resources, and ought not therefore, to be sanctioned or 
allowed, except in cases of actual necessity for repelling invasion or 
suppressing insurrection or rebellion ; 

And whereas the policy of the government of the United States, 
from the beginning of the insurrection to its overflow and final sup- 
pression, has been in conformity with the principles herein set forth 
and enumerated : 

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, 
do hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which hereto- 
fore existed in the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North 
Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and 
Florida, is at an end, and is henceforth to be so regarded. 



452 WHY THE SOLID SOUTH? 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the 
seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington, the second day of 
April, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-six, and of the Independence of the 
United States of America the ninetieth. 

Andrew Johnson. 
By the President, 

Wm. H. Seward* Secretary of State. 




A $3.00 Book, Beautifully Illustrated, for $2.25. A Work 
Desired In every Southern Home. 



LIFE AND REMINISCENCES 



OF 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

BY DISTINGUISHED MEN OF HIS TIME. 
Introductory by Hon. JOHN W. DAMEl, I'. S. Senator from Virginia. 



A number of distinguished soldiers and statesmen, who were inti- 
mate with Mr. Davis, have furnished articles specially for this book, 
among whom are Senator Keagan, of Texas, member of Mr. Davis* 
Cabinet ; U. S. Senator Vest, of Missouri ; Col. AV. C. P. Breckin- 
ridge, Member of Congress from Kentucky; Ex-Attorney-General 
Garland, of Arkansas ; Hon. J. L. M. Curry, Ex-Minister to Spain ; 
Gov. F. K. Lubbock, of Texas; Gen'l Geo. W. Jones, of Iowa, 
Ex-U. S. Senator; Hon. Keuben Davis, of Mississippi, who was with 
Mr. Davis in the Mexican War; Kev. Chas. Minnegerode, D. D., 
Mr. Davis' pastor during the war; Hon. J. Eandolph TuCker, Vir- 
ginia; Ex-Postmaster General Jas. Campbell, who was with Mr. 
Davis in the Cabinet of President Pierce; Gen'l A. R. Lawton, 
Georgia, Ex-Minister to Eussia; Hon. H. A. Herbert, Member of 
Congress from Alabama; Gen. Joseph Wheeler, Alabama, Member 
of Congress; Hon. S. Teackle Wallis, Maryland; Major Thomas 
Hall, and other prominent and distinguished men. 

The book is issued in the highest artistic style. It contains 
some of Mr. Davis' most choice letters, speeches, proclamations, etc., 
making 546 pages. It is beautifully illustrated with numerous engrav- 
ings and a steel portrait of Mr. Davis. 
It is farnislied to subscribers in elegant and durable binding at the following prices : 

Fine Edition, Cioth, *--2i 

Fine English Clotli, side and baclt goid stamp, gilt top, untrlmmed edKes, i.io 

Sheep, sprinkled edges, ^••'* 

Turkey Morocco, gold edges (Presentation Edition), ♦•00 

AGEXTS WANTED EVEKYTN'IIEKE. 



Address. R ^ WOODWARD & COMPANY, Baltimore, Md. 



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